[NJARC] Remembering President John F. Kennedy

[John Dilks K2TQN]

http://www.eht.com/ photo here

John Dilks remembers:

On November 22, 1963 I was completing my first week of telephone 
school with the Western Electric Company. It was held in the 
telephone office in Westfield, NJ. We had been there for the entire 
week. This was to be our fifth and final day of school, and the next 
week we would become Telephone Men and start actual work. It was 
Friday morning.

All of a sudden the telephone office made a tremendous noise and 
began to sound like hundreds of men hammering horse shoes on 
blacksmith's anvils. This sound I would later learn is when the (1963 
type of) telephone office tries to complete more telephone calls than 
it was designed to do, and can not. Within a minute it became silent, 
refusing to complete any more calls.

The Chief Telephone Switchman asked us to leave immediately while he 
started to get the telephone office working again. He told us that he 
heard that something had happened to the President. Meanwhile his 
Morse Telegraph Order Wire was clicking away adding to the confusion.

Our instructor asked if anyone had a portable radio with them. I did 
and brought it in from my car. We all listened and spun the dial 
searching for any news about our President. After at least two hours 
of nothing the news began to break and news stories started to say 
that President John F. Kennedy had been shot and had been taken to 
the hospital.

We sadly learned the truth, one short news item at a time. At the end 
of the work day, I drove home with my new friend that I met at the 
school, Bobby Dade from Atlantic City. That was the longest, saddest, 
and quietest ride I have ever taken.

I'll never forget it. I will never forget President John F. Kennedy.