I just heard some talking heads on TV discussing the Kennedy assasination on this date in 1963. Most of them don't remember it because they weren't born yet. A few of the older talking heads were small children.

I remember it clearly, because I was 30. I was standing in front of a 7th grade class, when the intercom called me to the office for a phone call. That was not unusual, but this time it was my wife saying that something had happened in Texas and the president had been shot. I asked her how bad he was hurt and she said that his wounds could be fatal.

I told the principal and he turned on the radio. By the time I got back to my room he had the radio on the intercom and the whole school listened to news reports.

Once it was determined that Kennedy was dead, school was dismissed and everybody went home.

It brought back memories of the day Franklin Roosevelt died. I was 12, almost 13, and had just come off the golf course where I had been working as a caddy. A man came out on his porch and said, "Have you heard that Roosevelt died?"

Yeah, I remember Pearl Harbor and 911. Why are the bad memories always so clear even decades later?