Kent State Remembered

[Welsh Wench]

Yesterday was the 39th anniversary of the massacre at Kent State.
I lived about 45 minutes from there and alot of people in my graduating class went there.
Alison Krause was in our school system until she moved to Pittsburgh.

I would like to post the reactions from those of my classmates who reminisced on another forum.

I was at Kent State in Science class during the riot and had no idea that Allison was attending Kent....until the ride home and heard that she had been killed. I think of her very often and as the years go by.......less and less is mentioned about the students that were killed there.
~~BHL


Oooh...really bad memories. I was at KSU on 5/4/70 and in Gym Class. We were dismissed and had to walk over the hill to get back to the dorm. As I was heading there, soldiers with rifles pointed at us came right over the hill. Never was so scared in my life- that sadly ended college for me! I went back to the dorm, threw stuff in a suitcase, and when they said people with transportation could leave - my roomate and I stuck out our thumbs and hitched rides home. What a horrible day.
Whenever I read accounts of that day, the people giving them weren't where I was. It never sounds the way I remember it.Not at all.
~~SKF


I too was at Kent on May 4th, crossing the Commons to go to an English class. All I remember was my parents telling me to attend classes, I went home for the weekend and came back Sunday night thinking there would just be another demonstration, nothing terrible. Then having to leave class and go back to my dorm, Allyn to find a ride home.

As a note about memorials today, my daughter now is in grad school at Kent for library science and works in the archives. They have every piece of information, picture and audio and video tapes collected there. She worked last year on interviewing people to add to the archives. If you are on campus, it is still an important day as there are activities going on. I was able to visit the library to see the entire collection and it is phenomenal what was saved. Unfortunately, she doesn't understand why some many people don't want to discuss it who went there.
~~SKK


I, too, was at Kent State my freshman year when the four students were killed. I did not realize that Allison was from Cleveland area. I was in the dorm cafeteria (Allyn Hall)when we heard the gunshots. All classes were cancelled, and we were not allowed to leave the dorm. That was before cell phones,and I know our parents were worried not being able to reach us. All the phone lines were down. My roommate had a car on campus, and we drove to Cleveland airport when they let us leave, and everyone called their parents from the airport. It was pretty scary that weekend, like being in a war-zone...May 4, 1970 is one of those dates never forgotten.
~~SWL

Sandra Scheuer was my cousin and as I understand it an innocent bystander at Kent State when she was killed by the national guard ( a stray bullet ). She was from Youngstown .
~~MC

I had many wonderful times with Allison. I'll never forget how I heard.I was at OSU and in the middle of the rioting there...almost got killed myself by a brick thrown through a glass window on High St...missed my head by a fraction of an inch...OSU was closing down and my mother called me crying to tell me to come home and that Allison had been killed. She lived on Revere Rd if anybody remembers that area. Here it is...2009...and it looks like nothing was learned after Vietnam. Crazy.
~~JSP


And if you have any doubts.....listen to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mid-j9Ki49s&feature=related

[Lady Nicolette]

Those of us who were around then were profoundly saddened by this terrible event...Following is a link to the wiki on Neil Young's immediate (and I do mean immediate, especially for the technology of the day) response in song:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_(CSNY_song)

[Demetrius]

Such a sad event even without knowing those involved personally- thanks for the comments Welsh Wench and thanks for the link Lady Nicolette.
Hard to believe it has been almost 40 years... 

[Welsh Wench]

Forty-three years ago today......

67 rounds of ammo
13 seconds
9 wounded

....and four dead in Ohio

R.I.P. Allison, Jeff, Sandy and William

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

I was still in high school, but I remember that day.  How horrible.  Protests were going on all the time at colleges, but aside from tear gas and the cops hitting with their truncheons, people hadn't been killed.  A sad day in American history.