Jack Rakove

Since I have had to do a lot of reflecting on my academic career the past week or two, this leads me to recall the day JFK was killed. I was in English class with Barbara Pannwitt (Roseann, weren't you there?) and we were doing an assignment, and she walked in and said something like, "Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to tell you that the president has just been shot." We walked out into the corridor, which just seemed to be exploding with nervous energy. My last class that day was B.G. Mattson's US history class. I wondered how could we possibly still be in school now, with all that's happened. And the subject that day was a topic I have written about several times since--the great debate between Madison and Jefferson on one side and Hamilton on the other, as to whether it was constitutional for Congress to issue a charter of incorporation to the first Bank of the United States. Later I thought about Mattson's commitment to his trade--that even in tragedy, one has an obligation to teach.
 

Lincoln Krochmal

Jack,

You have had an amazing career at a very prestigious institution and authored some excellent books that will really be your legacy!

Be well and be safe,

Lincoln

Robert Lindner

I was also in Mattson's class and had Pannwitt for English.

But my memory of that time is not providing me with enough energy to create some poetry. 

I need a time machine. But I know the only time I have is the next moment.

Woops! There it went.

Jack Rakove

Historians ride time machines all the time. I often recall the exact timing of 18th-c. events better than things I've done in my own life. And maybe at our age, with 50th anniversaries of this and that rolling by, we're doing more of this retrospective thinking any how.

Bruce Boyer

Jack and I were sitting next to each other in Barbara Pannwitt's 4 English CL class and his memory is correct that we were doing some sort of writing assignment, so she'd spent the period downstairs in the faculty lounge. She came in at period's end, having been watching TV there, and told us about Kennedy. Jack's recall of her words are spot-on.

A bit of a reflection. Olaf Schatz, the Chancellor of Germany, said that February 24, 2022, when Russia went into Ukraine, was a Zeitenwende, a "turn of  the times." Indeed. And such turns can be easily marked.  My parents always told me that the day the world changed for them Was Decemvber7th, 1941, when they heard on the radio while they were making the bed that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Twentry-some years later, my world changed forever on that November day when JFK was killed. I'd been accepted to Amherest threwe weeks earlier and had thought my future was assured and BOOM1

I used to say as much to my kids and guess what? Fast forward once again to 9/11 when my son, also a senior at ETHIS, called me and said "Dad, senior year is the curse!"

Bruce

Paula Massey

I too remember the day that Pres. Kennedy was shot. I was volunteering behind the dest in the library when the head librarian Ms. Nicholson stood between the two rooms and made the announcement. I was stunned. I also remember being out in the hallway afterward with lots of students talking and exclaiming. And then the days that followed.........................

Rosanne Bass (Keynan)

I, too, was in AP English with Jack and Bruce (Robert, were you in a different class taught by Mrs. Panwitt?)

She was my favorite teacher at ETHS, and had a penchant for the dramatic -- part of what made her such an effective teacher. On that November day she was in the teachers' lounge while our class took an essay test. When she entered the room at the end of the period, she sat down and said blankly: "The President (pause) has been shot." I thought she must be setting the context for a writing assignment. It soon became clear she was not.

Susan Spiegel (Pastin)

I was in study hall.  The full horror of losing so much, and so much mistrust of government, didn't hit me until much later.

Susan Chausow (Southam)

I too was in an English class although not with Barbara Pannwitt, whom I adored as I got to know her on Yamo Board. My English teacher's name is well-repressed (I think I became an English teacher in SPITE of her) but the day Kennedy died is one I don't think I'll forget even if I eventually suffer from some form of dementia. I remember being in homeroom (probably study hall?) after English class and TVs were on and then Cronkite said he had died and we were all eventually sent home. What a horrible horrible day.

William Wanlund

I was walking down the hall when Richard Badesch came up and said, "President Kennedy's been shot."  I didn't believe him.

Nancy Schroeder

I also was in study hall. I don't remember who came in to tell us the shotting of the president but it felt like all the air drained from the room. 

Edward Boesel

As I remember that fateful day in November, we had junior class theme day, I was in the journalism class, half way through writing my theme when they told us the president had been shot. For years I kept that paper, in which the handwriting visibly deteriorated half way through the paper. I don't know if I still have it, but several times, while looking for something else, I have come across it and a cold wave of memory has gone through me. JFK left in me the requirement that the president of our country's primary duty is to inspire all of us (especially the youth) to do good works for the country and each other.

Bruce Boyer

Susan--

I'm thinking you've got teachers mixed. You and I were both active in Yamo but it wasn't Barbara Pannwitt who supervised it but Karen Kuehner, whom I adored. Makes me curious as to who was the nameless English teacher you were refrerring to. 

Bruce

Robert Lindner

Based on Historians being time travelers

I got a few ideas and made them a poem.

What else?

Time travel

Time travel is the thing

Historians do, with others, to bring

The world of yesterday

To us. That’s what they say.

But earth’s history may

Need geologic views for traveling

To the time before we,

Humans, began writing down history.

And geology does

Not lie about what was

Happening. But because

Humans must interpret it, it may be

Like Relativity,

Which was Einstein’s scientific theory,

Which includes space and time

In the universe I’m

Traveling in rhyme,

By rhyme, through time, writing poetry.

How? It’s a mystery,

Finding the path through what’s left of “To be,”

Hoping my traveling

Can continue till spring.

When you’re old and aging,

Low expectations are reality,

But traveling in time

Is what I’ll do, in the universe I’m

Traveling in. I will

Travel on, while I’m still

Here, enjoying life, till

I reach the end of time with one last rhyme.

I hope my traveling

Will be pleasant, till my poem will bring

Me to the final verse,

When my atoms will disperse,

For better or for worse,

Since there is an ending to everything.

But until then I’ll try

To keep it simple and let the words I

Write reveal my thoughts of

Life and the need for love,

A happiness far above

 All happiness. It takes me to the sky,

As I travel and lift

My eyes up high, each day that is my gift,

As time goes by, and I’m

Still traveling in time.

Up to the sky, I’ll climb,

In my imagination, where I’ll drift

Into the future, while

I explore the past, which brings a smile

To me, as I enjoy

Memories and I toy

With being a young boy

Again, but no longer needing to style

Myself to match what was

In, in my youth or what’s in now because

There is only what I’m

Able to do with rhyme,

As I travel in time,

In my old body that’s full of the flaws

That are caused by aging,

Getting older, where time is damaging

To every body part,

Bones, joints, brain and heart,

All parts that had their start,

When I turned into a human being,

And began traveling,

Once upon a time, at the beginning

Of me. But now I’m old,

Much older, truth be told,

Than the body, the mold,

Prepared by evolution for that thing

Called “human” life which I

Am, as I’m traveling into time by

The only road I know.

There’s nowhere else to go,

But into time, although

There are still choices, new things we can try

We can’t escape age, though

The mind may want to find somewhere to go,

Beyond the boundaries

Of time to fantasies,

And ancient mysteries,

That are not real, but may be tales we know.

We may believe in them,

Or we may think they’re foolish, and condemn

Them into the darkness

They came from. A madness

Of the mind. Nothingness.

 Though they’re just sayings, like an apothegm

That refers to tomorrow

As another day. And, of course, we know,

The sun will come up, then.

As time goes by, again,

And I’ll remember when,

And try to enjoy what I can borrow

From time, as I pass through

Tomorrow and tomorrow. To each new

Day, when I can say,

“I’m here, still on my way,

And have a good day.”

A wish from one old time traveler to

Another, who also

Must obey the laws of space-time. You know

There is no other way.

Yesterday, then today

Then “tomorrow,” they say,

“Is another day.”  So that’s where I’ll go.

I hope to see you there.

But I’m still searching my memories. Where

I can still go. So I’m

Traveling into time,

And going rhyme to rhyme.

I’ll keep going there, I’ve got rhymes to spare.

Renee Sherer (Schleicher)

I learned of JFK's assassination in West Hall's study hall, and I vaguely recall that the monitor turned on the TVs so we could watch the news, horrified.  I had planned to study for that afternoon's chemistry test, but obviously could only focus on the news.  Everyone in the class was stunned.  I assumed the test would be cancelled, but it was not.  I still remember looking blankly an the questions.  I did not do well that day.

Kathy Dalgety (Miehls)

I was in Larry Larkin's (dreaded) chemistry class that day. So was Leo Schlosberg (who got me through that class).

Ruth Gross

I am sorry to change the thread a bit, but many of you who know me also knew my sister, Vivien, who graduated from ETHS class of '60 and continued to live in Evanston with her family. She and her husband, Dan Tarlock, raised three children who all went to ETHS as well.  It was 10 3/4 years ago that Vivien began her battle against salivary gland cancer. During those years there were ups and down, but she bravely took on each new challenge and kept living with cancer. She fought her last fight on Saturday and won. She will always be my hero, and I will miss her terribly.  

Sherrie Igoe (Dembrowski)

Susan Chausow (Southam)

Bruce, of course, Karen Kuehner, you're right. But I also knew Barbara Pannwitt well. Anyway, my senior year English teacher was a very very strange woman who said she was a reincarnated dolphin and had a pin of a dolphin that she wore all the time. She also taught creative writing, I think. I don't want to remember her name. But someone will. 
 

Anne Haswell (Marinello)

I was in Madrigals - chorus - and was stunned.  A moment I'll never forget.  

Paula Massey

Ruth

I'm sorry to hear about your sister. I trust you have many memories to sustain you during this grieving time.

I've also lost my sister, Kendra (class of 1967),  back in 2014. 

Judith Sheahan (Lindgren)

I was in North Hall study hall. The North Hall principal and his team came in to make the announcement at around 12:20, I think--although that specific time may be incorrect. I have no memory of the rest of the afternoon or if any of my teachers continued with lesson plans or discussed what happened and anticipated implications for our country. I'm guessing I felt numb. At the end of the day, I remember kids were running towards the Birdcage to leave. One girl, who will remain nameless, ran past me yelling repeatedly that the Russians were going to attack us. It upset and annoyed me because her reaction appeared to be so over the top and nothing more than seeking attention. While I didn't know what would happen, I remember feeling shocked and knew that this was a pivotal moment in history.

When did we learn that school would be closed and for how long? I don't recall but do remember watching the funeral with a few kids in someone's home. Some joked that they were just glad for the days off. I'm curious--do you think it was right to close school or would it have been better to keep schools in session with opportunities for discussion, perhaps only closing for the funeral? 

Vernon Neece (Neece)

I was in chorus.  I recall the noise level in the halls passing to my next class were subdued.  The teacher at my next class spent the first few minutes talkiing about Kennedy's assassanation.  I consider the crashing of the planes into the twin towers in NY an equivalent event in my life.

Thomas Starck

Susan Chausow (Southam)

Judy, your questions made me curious, so I googled November of 1963. The day of the assassination was a Friday. The funeral was Monday the 25th. Thanksgiving was Thursday the 28th. So I'm assuming that we were out of school the whole week rather than come back to school for just 2 days after the funeral. In my experience as a public educator for 34 years, believe me that a two day week is a waste of time and effort. 

I, too, remember the halls being eerily quiet at first, a lot of confusion and shock and sadness, and some people expressing fear of war. I also remember one person expressing happiness that Kennedy was dead. That was awful. I don't remember being sent back to classes after it was announced that Kennedy had died.