11/22/63
I was in 6th grade and our teacher was called out of the classroom by another of the 6th grade teachers a little before 2 pm. They spoke briefly in the hall and our teacher returned and kept going with the lesson as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Our usual dismissal time was 3:30, and we wondered what was up when the teacher starting wrapping up just past 3. He then told us about President Kennedy and mentioned that is why the other teacher stopped to speak with him. He explained that if he had told us at 2 pm the rest of the day's lessons wouldn't have been done. I don't know how the class would have reacted if we had been told at 2 pm, but telling us right at dismissal time meant we all just left for the weekend in stunned silence.
That night at dinner my father who worked for NJ Bell told us how the entire office he worked in suddenly seized up as every phone line went busy. This only happened when there was some momentous event. Dad used his work line to call my mother at home to ask if something had happened. Mom had been listening to the radio and told Dad the news about Dallas. I guess everyone in Paterson was trying to call someone to relay the news or discuss the tragedy. It's amazing looking back 50 years before computer use and the internet how long it took for news like this to get to everyone.
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