Nov 22nd in Pop History
On this day, November 22nd, 1963:
(58 years ago today)
The CBS Network New Bulletin interrupted regular television programming that afternoon at 2:38pm EST, with the following words of Walter Cronkite (as he’s looking down in disbelief reading an Associated Press bulletin he was holding in his hand):
After looking it over for a moment, he took off his glasses, and made the official sobering announcement: “From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: (reading AP flash) "President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time." (glancing up at clock) 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.” Walter Cronkite just sat there then, speechless...
And the whole world stood still in shock.
The Assassination of JFK
It was a Friday afternoon, warm and pleasant for late November. I was in school. I was a crossing guard helper though I was so little - I stood with the adult crossing guard at the crosswalk and “helped” with the crossing of the children. So I was going to the school office to get the small official vest I wore for my duties. Just before the day ended, an announcement on the school loudspeaker tragically informed us that President Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. We were encouraged to go straight home and not to delay. As I walked by the school office, I noticed many teachers and administrators were crying. It was difficult to understand.
If you were watching TV that afternoon, the following video clip is what you would have seen from Walter Cronkite on CBS news:
I remember there being a lot of grief and shock. And then it turned to anxiety, people wondering if our nation was perhaps under attack, and we didn’t know what might happen next? Was a nuclear war imminent, and were we safe? Who was in charge of the country? Who was responding to the crisis since the President had been assassinated? The whole weekend following the news report was a mass of confusion and anxiety and great sadness.
Everyone was glued to their TV. I remember my parents driving to Washington, since we used to live there in Virginia, and they attended the funeral for the President. We kids stayed home with my older adult sister.
It was the end of an era. Perhaps we’ll never fully know what really happened that day, or who caused it to happen.
Conspiracy theories have abounded all these years and decades. One thing is clear. We have very little control over most events that happen around us. Any sense of control you think you have is at best an illusion. That’s as true in 2021 as it was in 1963.
Perhaps the one small aspect of control we do have, is our response to things that happen in our lives. That’s up to us. Now, as then, many people utilize music to manage mixed feelings and stressors in their lives. I am one of those people. Music management. Mood altering.
Some may call it escapism. Maybe it is. Escape is not a bad thing. Escape from perceived danger and uncertainty seems to be a very rational response to me. Music is a powerful tool, and is much safer than drugs and narcotics to accomplish mood altering. It can actually work, and can actually protect one’s mental health, at least to some degree. I highly recommend it.
Hence, this little blog....
Attached below is a Spotify Playlist that I created from the Billboard Hot 100 Chart dated November 23, 1963 (the day after the terrible event in Dallas). The Billboard chart is also attached if you’re interested in it. The Playlist contains the top songs getting played on the radio during that week, as the nation dealt with the aftermath of the loss of the President.
If you would like to “time travel” musically back to November of 1963, or just enjoy a little escape from your current troubles, please click on to the following link, and get away for a while.
JFK Assassination • November 22, 1963
(Playlist on Spotify)
Billboard Hot 100 • November 23, 1963
