Tuesday, December 8, 2015: Tonight marks the 35th anniversary of John Lennon’s passing. Everyone knows what happened on this day at 11:10PM EST. I was 10-years old at the time. Yet, it’s one of those moments where you will always remember where you were when you got the news. Back then I did not know the Beatles by their full names. All the kids my age back then knew by their first names. The next morning I went outside to grab the news paper. I remember the news paper semi-buried in a small snow drift that had accumulated on the front porch. After taking off the rubber-band that bound the paper, I never forgot the big bold letters on the front page, “JOHN LENNON SHOT DEAD”.
My mother was getting my sister and I ready for school that morning when I asked her who John Lennon was. She told me John Lennon is one of the Beatles. And John from the cartoon I like to watch “The Yellow Submarine”. She was right, as a 10-year old how cool was that to see grown men being chased around city after city by mobs of girls. Even if it was a cartoon. Although probably not far from reality for those guys. She asked me why I was asking about John. I turned to show her the front page of the newspaper and told her what happened. “OH MY GOD!” she exclaimed as she propped herself up to keep from fainting.
There is no denying what a talent John Lennon was. I still have the Double Fantasy cassette from back in the day. I remember when the land behind out house was being graded for future construction and I would sit up on this dirt hill with my portable cassette player listening to that cassette over and over. It was hard to comprehend how someone of John’s stature met such a violent end.
In 2012 I was in New York to watch friends run the marathon. It was not until we were 1/2 way there that the marathon was cancelled because of Hurricane Sandy. Gotta love the live TV on Jet Blue. That’s another story altogether. It certainly was not my first time to New York. This was my first time to Strawberry Fields. If you have been there then you know where the above picture came from. Across the street is The Dakota Building. Yoko Ono still lives there believe it or not. You certainly cannot walk down West 72nd Street and not feel the eerie chill.
RIP John. You left the world way too soon.
