Amy Kirkbride, Oral History

Recorded: May 1, 1990
Transcribed by Lisa Whalen and Kathleen S. Medicus

I'm twenty six years old, I actually grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio, or near East Liverpool. I was six years old on May 4th, 1970, and the only thing I can remember is -- this is the only -- this is my first rememberance of anything in the news, because, the only other thing I can remember is the people from the Apollo thing, which would have been July of '69, splashing down. But this is the first news event I remember hearing about. And I can remember saying to my mom, "What is all of this about Kent?" And she said, "The thing about Kent was we just don't shoot people in Northeast Ohio. And it was odd because it was just a small college town."

I've worked here at the University in the library for the last three and a half years almost, and it's interesting for me to talk to people who were actually here. One -- the people that were -- they were building the new library, the twelve story library, at the time, and I remember the people that were in there working on something when the shootings happened, they had to stay there, 'til late that night. And I also talked to somebody who was here and did all the sound for all the hearings later, that happened.

And I remember another thing my mom told me once about the shootings. She said that, she said, "For everything else we can say about Kent State," she said, "At least it put an end to the demonstrations around Vietnam." But, I don't think she was right.

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