Bruce Hornsby Remembers

[ajohnstone]

“Narrow-minded attitudes prevailed in my small southern
town,”

"I remember being nine years old, in third grade, when Kennedy was
assassinated. It was a Friday afternoon and I remember them announcing the
buses over the intercom. ‘Bus 47 for the Grove, Bus 37 for
Ironbound Road…’ And suddenly they stuck the microphone to
the TV where Walter Cronkite was announcing that the president had been
shot in Dallas. Almost my entire class cheered. They were shouting:
‘Hurray! Now Nixon can take over!’ But I was so shocked. I
felt awful. It was a seminal moment in my childhood, just stamped on my
brain and I still get chills when I think about it.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/bruce-hornsby-interview-new-album-grateful-dead-a9685991.html

False memory syndrome? Uneducated childish reaction from his class-mates?
Out of the mouths of babes?

Or was there this strong anti-JFK sentiment that was suppressed?

[John Corbett]

Post by ajohnstone
“Narrow-minded attitudes prevailed in my small southern
town,”
"I remember being nine years old, in third grade, when Kennedy was
assassinated. It was a Friday afternoon and I remember them announcing the
buses over the intercom. ‘Bus 47 for the Grove, Bus 37 for
Ironbound Road…’ And suddenly they stuck the microphone to
the TV where Walter Cronkite was announcing that the president had been
‘Hurray! Now Nixon can take over!’ But I was so shocked. I
felt awful. It was a seminal moment in my childhood, just stamped on my
brain and I still get chills when I think about it.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/bruce-hornsby-interview-new-album-grateful-dead-a9685991.html
False memory syndrome? Uneducated childish reaction from his class-mates?
Out of the mouths of babes?
Or was there this strong anti-JFK sentiment that was suppressed?

Any and all are plausible scenarios. Dan Rather's report of a similar
incident at a Dallas School was misleading. The kids were told that school
was being let out early without being told why. That is why they cheered.
Perhaps this false narrative influenced a similar false memory by
Hornsby.

Nixon wasn't particularly popular in the South in the 1960s. It was still
Democrat country and even thought they didn't like JFK because he was a
northerner, that's not a reason they would have embraced a Nixon
presidency. Did they even understand that LBJ, not Nixon was the new
president?

I know in my case, my parents who were staunchly pro-JFK didn't
particularly like LBJ and they had passed that on to me. When the radio in
our classroom announced JFK was dead, my first reaction was, "Now we get
that bum Johnson for president.". I said that out loud.

[Anthony Marsh]

Post by John Corbett

Post by ajohnstone
“Narrow-minded attitudes prevailed in my small southern
town,”
"I remember being nine years old, in third grade, when Kennedy was
assassinated. It was a Friday afternoon and I remember them announcing the
buses over the intercom. ‘Bus 47 for the Grove, Bus 37 for
Ironbound Road…’ And suddenly they stuck the microphone to
the TV where Walter Cronkite was announcing that the president had been
‘Hurray! Now Nixon can take over!’ But I was so shocked. I
felt awful. It was a seminal moment in my childhood, just stamped on my
brain and I still get chills when I think about it.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/bruce-hornsby-interview-new-album-grateful-dead-a9685991.html
False memory syndrome? Uneducated childish reaction from his class-mates?
Out of the mouths of babes?
Or was there this strong anti-JFK sentiment that was suppressed?

Any and all are plausible scenarios. Dan Rather's report of a similar
incident at a Dallas School was misleading. The kids were told that school
was being let out early without being told why. That is why they cheered.
Perhaps this false narrative influenced a similar false memory by
Hornsby.
Nixon wasn't particularly popular in the South in the 1960s. It was still
Democrat country and even thought they didn't like JFK because he was a
northerner, that's not a reason they would have embraced a Nixon
presidency. Did they even understand that LBJ, not Nixon was the new
president?

You tend to forgot how close the election was in 1960. Some gave credit
to having LBJ on the ticket to balance it out. Otthers even think They
stuffed the ballots in Texas. And Chicago.

Post by John Corbett
I know in my case, my parents who were staunchly pro-JFK didn't
particularly like LBJ and they had passed that on to me. When the radio in

JFK didn't particularly like LBJ either, but he needed him.

Post by John Corbett
our classroom announced JFK was dead, my first reaction was, "Now we get
that bum Johnson for president.". I said that out loud.

[John Corbett]

Post by Anthony Marsh

Post by John Corbett

Post by ajohnstone
“Narrow-minded attitudes prevailed in my small southern
town,”
"I remember being nine years old, in third grade, when Kennedy was
assassinated. It was a Friday afternoon and I remember them announcing the
buses over the intercom. ‘Bus 47 for the Grove, Bus 37 for
Ironbound Road…’ And suddenly they stuck the microphone to
the TV where Walter Cronkite was announcing that the president had been
‘Hurray! Now Nixon can take over!’ But I was so shocked. I
felt awful. It was a seminal moment in my childhood, just stamped on my
brain and I still get chills when I think about it.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/bruce-hornsby-interview-new-album-grateful-dead-a9685991.html
False memory syndrome? Uneducated childish reaction from his class-mates?
Out of the mouths of babes?
Or was there this strong anti-JFK sentiment that was suppressed?

Any and all are plausible scenarios. Dan Rather's report of a similar
incident at a Dallas School was misleading. The kids were told that school
was being let out early without being told why. That is why they cheered.
Perhaps this false narrative influenced a similar false memory by
Hornsby.
Nixon wasn't particularly popular in the South in the 1960s. It was still
Democrat country and even thought they didn't like JFK because he was a
northerner, that's not a reason they would have embraced a Nixon
presidency. Did they even understand that LBJ, not Nixon was the new
president?

You tend to forgot how close the election was in 1960. Some gave credit
to having LBJ on the ticket to balance it out. Otthers even think They
stuffed the ballots in Texas. And Chicago.

I'm trying to figure out how that has any relevance tow what I wrote. I'm
not having any success.

Post by Anthony Marsh

Post by John Corbett
I know in my case, my parents who were staunchly pro-JFK didn't
particularly like LBJ and they had passed that on to me. When the radio in

JFK didn't particularly like LBJ either, but he needed him.

Not true according to Pierre Salinger. LBJ's and RFK's dislike of each
other was well known. That wasn't true with JFK.

[Anthony Marsh]

Post by John Corbett

Post by Anthony Marsh

Post by John Corbett

Post by ajohnstone
“Narrow-minded attitudes prevailed in my small southern
town,”
"I remember being nine years old, in third grade, when Kennedy was
assassinated. It was a Friday afternoon and I remember them announcing the
buses over the intercom. ‘Bus 47 for the Grove, Bus 37 for
Ironbound Road…’ And suddenly they stuck the microphone to
the TV where Walter Cronkite was announcing that the president had been
‘Hurray! Now Nixon can take over!’ But I was so shocked. I
felt awful. It was a seminal moment in my childhood, just stamped on my
brain and I still get chills when I think about it.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/bruce-hornsby-interview-new-album-grateful-dead-a9685991.html
False memory syndrome? Uneducated childish reaction from his class-mates?
Out of the mouths of babes?
Or was there this strong anti-JFK sentiment that was suppressed?

Any and all are plausible scenarios. Dan Rather's report of a similar
incident at a Dallas School was misleading. The kids were told that school
was being let out early without being told why. That is why they cheered.
Perhaps this false narrative influenced a similar false memory by
Hornsby.
Nixon wasn't particularly popular in the South in the 1960s. It was still
Democrat country and even thought they didn't like JFK because he was a
northerner, that's not a reason they would have embraced a Nixon
presidency. Did they even understand that LBJ, not Nixon was the new
president?

You tend to forgot how close the election was in 1960. Some gave credit
to having LBJ on the ticket to balance it out. Otthers even think They
stuffed the ballots in Texas. And Chicago.

I'm trying to figure out how that has any relevance tow what I wrote. I'm
not having any success.

Post by Anthony Marsh

Post by John Corbett
I know in my case, my parents who were staunchly pro-JFK didn't
particularly like LBJ and they had passed that on to me. When the radio in

JFK didn't particularly like LBJ either, but he needed him.

Not true according to Pierre Salinger. LBJ's and RFK's dislike of each
other was well known. That wasn't true with JFK.

Do you remember that saying about the tent?

[Hank Sienzant (AKA Joe Zircon)]

Post by ajohnstone
“Narrow-minded attitudes prevailed in my small southern
town,”
"I remember being nine years old, in third grade, when Kennedy was
assassinated. It was a Friday afternoon and I remember them announcing the
buses over the intercom. ‘Bus 47 for the Grove, Bus 37 for
Ironbound Road…’ And suddenly they stuck the microphone to
the TV where Walter Cronkite was announcing that the president had been
‘Hurray! Now Nixon can take over!’ But I was so shocked. I
felt awful. It was a seminal moment in my childhood, just stamped on my
brain and I still get chills when I think about it.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/bruce-hornsby-interview-new-album-grateful-dead-a9685991.html
False memory syndrome? Uneducated childish reaction from his class-mates?
Out of the mouths of babes?
Or was there this strong anti-JFK sentiment that was suppressed?

I grew up in the north so I can't speak to southern attitudes, but why
would they be cheering the initial announcement by Cronkite that the
President had been shot?

Here's the announcements:

At the point of the first announcement, it wasn't known (nor announced)
whether the President would survive or not. Any cheering would certainly
be premature, and of course, it's off the wall (as Corbett noted) that
anyone would think Nixon would take over. LBJ was the vice-president, not
Nixon. Nixon's political career was pretty much viewed as dead and buried
in 1963. He lost the election for President in 1960, and lost the election
in 1962 for Governor of California. It was about an hour after the first
announcement that CBS announced the President was dead. Cheering at that
point might make more sense.

So he is either recalling the first announcement falsely, or the second
one. Or the entire incident.

The story about the kids cheering in a Dallas school did circulate at the
time, and he may have integrated that into his memory bank. But that
would come after the announcement the President was dead, not after he was
shot.

I think it's a false memory.

The way I read about it years later (in Rather's book?), was that the
school principal made the announcement to an assembly in the school gym,
saying that school would close early that day, but the second half of his
announcement "...because the President has been shot!" was drowned out by
the students cheering. Of course, that's NOT the way the story circulated
at the time.

Pointing to the timing of the incident, it sounds (at best) like he's
either being imprecise or recalling the second announcement that JFK was
dead, not the one that he was shot. That death announcement happened about
1:30 Dallas time, or about 2:30 Eastern time. Since he lived in Richmond,
Virginia, on the east coast, this second announcement would have been
about 2:30 Eastern Time, which seems more likely for the announcement of
the school buses, assuming a 2:45 or 3:00 pm dismissal time for grammar
school. A 1:45 - 2:00 pm dismissal time seems rather early.

My own memory is that I was stunned, and I remember at least one girl
breaking into tears after the announcement. I was in sixth grade as I
recall.

Hank