One of Those Days

By Jim Swettenham

(c) November 22, 2009

November 22, 1963 is one of those day that causes time to stand still…

It is one of those unforgettable days where people clearly remember where they were and what they were doing when news flashed around the world that President John F. Kennedy has been assassinated while passing through Dallas, Texas in a motorcade.

I was a student at Paradise Hill High School in Paradise Hill, SK and we werejust having lunch when word spread throughout the school that President Kennedy had been shot.

In a very unusual move, the school’s television set, on its tall metal stand, was wheeled into our classroom as we sat and watched the black and white images flash across the screen…it was the first time I had seen or heard of a guy named Walter Cronkite who painstakingly informed us and the rest of the world of what had has just happened and what was transpiring outside a building referred to as the school book depository near a grassy knoll in a distant city someplace in Texas.

No school work was done that afternoon as we all sat hushed in our desks, eyes glued to the TV. When the school bell rang at 3:30 to mark the end of school for yet another day we left our classrooms in an orderly fashion, made out way to our school buses for the rideback to our country homes.

We ran from the farmgate to our farmhouse anxious to share the tragic news with mom and dad.

What a great surprise to see to television set on with mom and dad sitting watching the news as it unfolded from the United States. Never before had we ever arrived home to find the television on…that as much as the news of the day was a memorable occasion.

Such was the impact of the story on the world, that even small farmers in west central Saskatchewan suspended their regular routine to follow the event as it unfolded. Evening chores, feeding cattle, milking cows was quickly undertaken and for the first time that I can recall, our family gathered in front of the TV as more black and white images continued to pour into our front room as we sat eating supper, plates balanced on our laps.

And now 46 years later we pause to remember November 22, 1963…one of those significant days when time seemed to stand still?