A Brief Remembrance by Doug Draper
Posted November 22nd, 2021 on Niagara At Large
U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie arrive in Dallas, Texas on Friday, November 22nd, 193 where within about an hour, he would be assassinated.
I was going to grade school at the time in my hometown of Welland in Niagara, Ontario. It was Friday, November 22nd, 1963 and my classmates and I had just come in from the lunch break.
A few minutes later, the schools vice principal arrived at our classroom door, his voice shaking and his eyes wet. “They shot President Kennedy,” he said. “We are asking you to go home.”
That was it. Our school, like so many others across Canada and the United States, were shut down for the rest of the day, and home we went to our grieving parents, watching the bulletins coming in on TV.
That is how well regarded U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Jackie were regarded on both sides of the border at that time. We felt like we had lost a great, youthful future who inspired so many to have hope for the future.
I doubt anyone who was old enough and still alive today forgets where they were when Kennedy was shot and killed on that autumn day.
To watch a brief video, featuring the eye witness account of Clint Hill, a retired secret service officer, who was closer to Kennedy than any other officer at the assassination scene, click on –
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Niagara At Large 
My memory of this assassination is very clear as well. I was in high school and we were just completing one of our Christmas exams. The principal came on the PA and told us the news. It was very difficult to believe. Yes, I think everyone who has a memory of that day, remembers where they were. Sadly, it was also my mother’s 43rd birthday.
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