We are coming up on the anniversary of 9/11. For those of us who are old enough, 11/22/63 has a special meaning because we will soon have the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. As such, I ask a question: Where were you and what were you doing on that date?

I'll start the ball rolling. I was 18 and at a rehearsal of the Brooklyn College Orchestra when someone came in with the news that the President had been shot. We were all stunned. The rehearsal continued, albeit with less than total attention from the musicians. Shortly thereafter, someone else came in to tell us that he had died. The rehearsal ended then and there.

My father met me afterwards and we didn't say a word on the ride home. During the subsequent televising of the funeral, he wept openly. I can truthfully say that that was the only time that I ever saw him cry. He didn't even weep when his father and mother died.

This event has a special meaning for me because I greatly admired JFK (of course, I didn't know about his personal peccadillos at that time) and it was a traumatic bit of news. My parents had similar strong memories of where they were on Dec. 7, 1941 (the attack on Pearl Harbor, for those of you who don't know).

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

I was lounging in Todd Union at the University of Rochester when the bells in the carillon began to ring and the announcement was made to the campus.
Disorientation was the primary reaction.
I decided to drive home (to Scarsdale) late that afternoon and ran out of gas about an hour out. Fortunately, parkway officials carried extra gas cans in their vehicles, and I made it home, albeit late.
Everybody there was equally stunned.
The events of the next 3 days didn't improve things much.
Camelot was gone ... and it's never returned.
We've been in Mordor ever since.

I had turned 19 just a coupl'a days earlier and was in the Brooklyn College cafeteria when the news broke. I don't remember how I got it; I do remember being stunned at the thought of something so terrible and senseless having happened. (I remember going home immediately after hearing - to an equally stunned family - but I've no idea whether I has already finished my classes for the day or cut what was left. )

I also remember 11/22/63 as having been a sad day for America in another sense: JFK's assassination ushered in the dawn of media overkill...commentators repeating themselves endlessly for hour after hour, day after day, in fact, pretty much never adding an iota of new info to their commentary, nothing changing other than their ties being looser this hour than they were last hour, totally wrapped up in imaginary glory. I found it appalling (Edit: and finally had enough and turned the TV off after watching a seemingly endless loop of Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot)!

I was 16 and in my history class when the announcement came over the PA. Our teacher was unable to continue and dismissed the class. I sat in the quadrangle of my high school in San Jose, California, on a beautiful day and bawled like a baby.

John Kennedy said the country was soft and everybody should be able to walk 50 miles. So we did. Thousands walked, or attempted to walk, from San Jose to San Francisco, because he asked us to.

Jack and Jackie.

Then Bobby. Then King. Vietnam.

Did the world change, or did I just get old and cynical?

Yes. Join the crowd.

My father was old-fashioned in that he had faith that our government was wise and benevolent. When the Warren Commission report was issued, he took it at face value, reasoning that so many distinguished men would have taken every precaution against error and that the issue was thoroughly investigated.

My position is quite different. I am sure that we will never know, for certain, what happened but my hypothesis is that JFK was killed on orders of the Mafia. He went after organized crime, forcing J. Edgar Hoover to investigate them and prosecute. Robert F. Kennedy was too happy to do it, despite assurances from Joseph Kennedy that it wouldn't happen. Joe Kennedy was known to have ties to the Mafia, and it has been said that Sam Giancana, the Chicago don, set both JFK and RFK up with Marilyn Monroe.

According to some, the Mafia had Hoover in their pocket because they had photographic evidence that Hoover was gay, consisting of him cross-dressing (and maybe other things). So, Hoover made it a practice to deny that there was any such thing as organized crime.

According to my hypothesis, JFK was murdered to protect the mob and I think it possible that Hoover had some knowledge of this, although I find it hard to believe that he actually participated. Let's remember that RFK was also assassinated some years later and Monroe died under suspicious circumstances.

Any other conspiracy theories out there?

The world didn't change. People have always been corrupt. And cynicism, according to my definition, is the acceptance of reality.

Lots. I'm just waiting for the unsealing of the evidence which is supposed to be released after 50 years. If nothing else, the skinny on the grassy knoll.

By the bye, excellent definition of 'cynicism'.

I was a 24 year old Navy Lieutenant serving with the First Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California and the duty officer for the artillery battalion. When word of the assassination came, it was my duty to recall the men of the battalion to duty. We spent a long, very long, and very tense day glued to the radio and television, cleaning weapons, sharpening bayonets, testing equipment, inventorying gear, and getting ready for anything that might happen. Truth be known I think most of us were too scared of the myriad "what ifs" for the import of what had happened to really sink in.

Unfortunately for the "skinny on the grassy knoll" and settling lots of other conspiracy theories even though John Kennedy's body was taken to Dallas' Parkland Hospital, home of what was probably the premier forensic pathology center in the world at the time. Jackie refused to let them perform the autopsy. Instead the body was flown to Bethesda in Washington DC and at the time Bethesda was only vaguely aware of the field of forensic pathology. Many of the questions that fueled, and still fuels, the various conspiracy theories would have been conclusively answered were it not for Jackie's understandable insistence on getting her husband's body out of Dallas. For the sake of history I wish she had done otherwise.

I was 18 years old and in my second job earning the princely sum of $160 per month. The company was a " mini conglomerate" of firms that included a printing shop, a small weekly newspaper "The Modern Farmer", a recording studio and a Saskatchewan radio station. Although I didn't make much, the wide range of things I got to do served me well in future endeavors.

I had been away from the building and, when I returned, the receptionist was sobbing. I looked over at the paper's Editor and his eyes were filled with tears. As the day unfolded it became more and more apparent just how much that American President meant to so many Canadians.

Actually, the world hasn't changed. I just finished reading "Those Angry Days" about the lead-up to World War II. Isolationists vs. Interventionists then, Republicans vs. Democrats now; no difference at all. Equal amounts of vitriol.

The day has arrived.

Here's some perspective on that time: In Kennedy’s Death, a Turning Point for a Nation Already Torn.