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[rhythmaning]

There are lots of anniversaries this weekend. Amongst them is the fiftieth anniversary of my first memory.

Like most people in the West who were alive at the time, I remember learning of the death of JFK.

Or rather, I remember some of the repercussions; or the lack of them.

I was nearly four at the time. My family had been away - either for the day or a couple of days, to somewhere near the sea. The south coast in November seems a bit far fetched, but that's where we had been.

Getting back to London, we watched the news on the tv, which featured the announcement of Kennedy's death, before I went to bed.

Sometimes, as a kind of treat, I was allowed to watch the adverts on tv rather than going straight to bed. So we must have been watching ITV rather than the BBC.

So as the news ended, I asked my father if I could watch the ads. He replied that there probably wouldn't be any ads - because of the shocking news.

But there were. And I got to watch them, before being sent to bed.

(My brother remembers watching the first episode of Dr Who, too, though I have no recollection of that, and he doesn't know if he saw it on the first broadcast or the repeat.)

Comments

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I'm a couple of years older than you. My first clear memory is the Cuban Missile crisis. I had no idea what was going on but I sensed the very real fear of all the adults. I certainly remember the Kennedy assassination and watched the first Doctor Who episode. A few years later, 1966 maybe, I remember the RAF vs the daleks at, I think, Duxford.