Where were you when you heard John Lennon was shot?

[Kickin_Donkey]

Former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed in front of his apartment building in New York City exactly 25 years ago today.

Where were you when you heard John Lennon had been shot?

I had just finished my first quarter as an 18-year-old freshman at the University of California and was back home for my first weekend during winter break. Over the preceding school term I had naturally been "shaken up" in many ways (not necessarily in a bad way) due to being away from home and attending college at the big university.

On this day, I was literally back on our farm in the Central Valley. I was trying to get back into my pre-college home routine, sitting on our living room floor and watching Monday Night Football with my dad and probably other family members (as we all used to do our hobbies in the living room in the evenings).

The Monday Night Football game was between the Miami Dolphins and another AFC East team (maybe the Jets, I can't quite recall which, but it was an AFC East team). I was particularly interested in this game because the Dolphins had a rookie tight end who had graduated from my town's small high school and had played at Cal, where I was now going to school. He was a legend in our community, and there he was in the big time -- in the NFL on national television -- getting playing time in his rookie season. To my dismay, he dropped a tough ball in the end zone. But hey, he was a rookie, right?

Then the scroll started to roll across the bottom of the screen. The Sacramento ABC affiliate was scrolling the news that John Lennon had been shot or had been killed (can't remember exactly, but it didn't really matter). I think a lot of the country learned of the news while watching MFN.

John Lennon was dead. Reagan had just been elected. The '80s were upon us. I went back to college after the break and I eventually graduated and went abroad.

That's my John Lennon story. What's yours?

[Debbi801]

1. I was in high school...

I had fallen asleep with the radio on & lights on in my room. I woke up just in time to hear the news interuption. I cried the rest of the night.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

2. I didn't find out about the shooting until the next morning.

I had gotten up for work and had the Today Show on when they announced it.

I just stood and shook my head, wondering "Why would anyone want to shoot John Lennon?"

I still can't fathom that, it made absolutely no sense to me 25 years ago today and it still doesn't.

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. I honestly can't remember exactly...but I was living in New York...

I'd say Upstate, but I'll get slammed for it. ;) :hi: Syracuse...Clay to be exact.

[Kickin_Donkey]

32. "Upstate" is cool with me.

;-)

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. In my crib, most likely.

I was still a day shy of being 6 months old!

[kick-ass-bob]

5. I don't even remember anything happening that day.

I was 7.

[johnnie]

6. The next morning

Like most of us 16 year olds in 1980 I was out on Monday night doing what we did best. I crashed out at probably 11 or so. The next morning my sister was standing at the edge of my bed when I woke up. My radio kicked in and I heard Beatles music and me sister told me what happened. It took a few minutes for it to soak in. On my turntable was "Shaved Fish" because I had been listening to that the night before.

As I rode in to school on the bus my buddy was waiting for me and he had this look that I won't forget. Almost everyone in school walked around stunned because it was just unheard of for someone like that to get assassinated. Even the ones who weren't fans were saddened and knowing that I was a huge fan, they were very cool to me. A few of us took some little tiny purple tablets that day and hung out. We had a smoking lounge that was in the center of the school and a lot of us sat out there listening to the radio, tripping and bumming out. I went to only a few classes (between John's death and the tabs it was hard to sit in a classroom).

That is one of the few days that will always stick out in my mind. I was so psyched that John was recording again and a few months later he is gunned down. It was a total drag and I still get a strange feeling this time each year.

[underpants]

8. I picked up the paper in the driveway

Lennon dead. I was 13.


I was more a Paul person then.

[johnnie]

10. I still have a small article from the morning paper

It says "A man believed to be John Lennon was shot outside the Dakota in New York late last night". It is only a small article. That was from the first edition.

[underpants]

12. "The Dakota" was mentioned a lot at the time

Not so much now. Has it fallen into disrepair? Do the tennants not want the publicity? Any idea?

[johnnie]

13. I think it still a desirable place to live

The people who lived there liked it because it was kept pretty "safe". I guess not 25 years ago, but before that. I believe they might have brought it back to what it was before Lennon's death.

Someone on DU from New York City could probably answer this better.

[ronnykmarshall]

38. Yoko still lives there.

It's a beautiful building. My mom and step-dad saw it when they were in NYC. They said it's beautiful.

[RetroLounge]

7. I was 19, and in New Port Richey, Florida

Visiting my grandparents. Woke up to the smell of breakfast, got up, sat down at the table, and my Grandmother asked if I knew who John Lennon was, and then handed me the newspaper.

I was shocked to say the least, lost any appetitte, and spent the day listening to Beatles and Lennon on the local radio station.

Still, so sad.

RL

[Cadfael]

9. Watching Monday Night Football

in DeKalb Illinois....I remember thinking it was particularly cruel hearing about it from Howard Cosell

[seaglass]

11. Sitting in a car with a date out in front of my parent's house

listening to the radio. I can't remember who the date was though.

[Shine]

14. I remember it vividly, after all these years...I was 16 and doing a

babysitting gig, watching TV, when the news came about John Lennon's death. I was shocked. I came home and woke up my single-parent dad to tell him the news. I remember he started crying because he was so devastated. I'd only seen him cry once or twice before in my life, so it really added to the emotional impact. Still, so sad. What a loss. :cry:

[ThatsMyBarack]

15. I was....

....nine and in fourth grade.

[flamingyouth]

16. I was in 7th grade.

It was a crappy year. My grandmother was just a couple of months away from dying of cancer. Then we were watching TV and heard he was shot. I always would listen to the radio as I was falling asleep back then, and that night they played nothing but Beatles and Lennon songs and the DJs were all crying. It was very sad and I just couldn't believe it. :(

[bikebloke]

17. Driving to work in the morning

Back when I drove. The radio had just played a song from his latest album. The DJ said something about in mourning for John Lennon. I thought he was making a snide criticism. I had just started appreciating Lennon's music. Anyway, I plugged a cassette into the player as I always did for the rest of the commute. Only at work, did a co-worker tell me about the shooting. In the year of two afterwards, a lot of folk woulds tell me that I looked like John Lennon. Koo-koo ka-choo.

[Midlodemocrat]

18. I was teaching high school at the time.

Grading papers when the news reported he had been shot. I didn't hear that he had passed until the next morning.

[MN ChimpH8R]

19. Watching Monday Night Football

Howard Cosell made the announcement in the middle of the game. He was as serious and sombre as could be - he got the importance of Lennon as a cultural icon.

[ronnykmarshall]

39. I recall him later during the game ......

it was after he made the orginal announcement and he was reporting some stats of the game and then said something like "but that does really matter, we've lost John Lennon tonight".

[Err]

20. I wasn't even thought of yet.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

21. 2 years away from being conceived. (nt)

[jane_pippin]

22. I was a little tiny kid and my brother was a little tiny baby and my mom

was freaking out. For some reason I vaguely remember being at a mall, (christmas shopping maybe but it seems odd that my brother would have been there too.), but I was only what--2 1/2, 3, so I don't know really.

I do remember the freaking out though. And wailing. There was wailing involved. (And rightly so.)

[ucmike]

23. i was 10 and remember mom and my aunt freaking out

i was thinking, "who is john lennon?"

[MamaBear]

24. Driving to Work

I was living in Binghamton, New York, and I never listened turned on the radio or TV in the morning because the families on either side of my little townhouse apartment had babies. So I got in the car, and there was Beatle music playing, and the DJ, who was sort of a smart-ass, announced that the previous song was by the "late" John Lennon. And I almost turned the radio off, and said to myself, "That's not funny."

Then the news came on. I think my second thought was, "Crazed fan, my ass."

I'm still of that opinion, by the way. And I still wonder what John might have given the world had he been given the chance, and am still grateful for what he gave us. He was bigger than life, and so were his talents, and so were his flaws.

RIP, John.

[ronnykmarshall]

41. We had turned on the radio after we heard it on TV.

At first we had on a local FM station and the DJ was so sad and upset. I had to call him and give him my support.

We later tuned into KLOS (Los Angeles .... we had 'cable FM' ... which was hooking your cable TV cord to your stereo and you could get stations from LA) .... the reports from KLOS were chilling. They were monitoring their sister station in NYC and some of the DJ were in shock. A lot of tears and anger.

[Tari]

25. Angell Hall, UW LaCrosse. My roommate had a Beatles album

(yeah, the kind that requires a turntable), I put it on & cried.

[Arugula Latte]

26. I was a freshman and watching "Little House on the Prairie"

They broke into programming. I was a HUGE Beatles fanatic at the time and I was heartbroken for days.

[seemunkee]

27. I didn't hear about it for 2-3 days

I worked in a woodshop and we kept to our benches a lot. I didn't have a TV, listen to the radio or read the paper.

[pdx_prog]

28. I was driving from New Orleans to Memphis....

stopped in to see a friend in Memphis that is the worlds biggest Beatle fan. Dude was sitting in his living room crying when we got there.

[StaggerLee]

29. I was getting ready for school

Must've happened the night previous because my mom told me. I was on the verge of 13. (my birthday being the 19th)

I was deeply saddened.

[bertha katzenengel]

30. Standing in the kitchen. My sister cried.

I didn't get it. I was 17 years old.

[Samurai_Writer]

31. I was at a "Beatlemania" concert for my 20th birthday

No kidding. They had these concerts of these beatle-look alikes/sound alikes. Someone took me there for my birthday (which is on the 9th, not the 8th, but the concert was on the 8th). They interrupted the concert to tell everyone John Lennon was dead and the whole place broke out into pandemonium. I'll never forget it.

[ronnykmarshall]

42. Oh my god how ironic.

I saw Beatlemania prior to John's murder.

[djeseru]

33. Living in Cupertino, California...

...I was 11, watching TV when they interrupted with the story. I don't remember what it was that I had been watching but I began to cry. I didn't quite understand the depth of John Lennon at that age but I remember feeling it was a great loss.

[Left Is Write]

34. In my bedroom the next morning.

I was in 9th grade. I got up to get ready for school and heard it on the radio.

[texas1928]

35. Probably when I got home from school.

I was in the 3rd grade.

[6000eliot]

36. Home watching Johnny Carson.

[ronnykmarshall]

37. I was at my friend Debby's house making cookies.

We had the football game on the background when Howard Cosell announced it. Her phone started ringing after that when friend of ours calling.

To make matter worse, I worked in a record store and we were swamped with calls for "Double Fantasy" which we had sold out right before he was shot.

The local NBC station came to interview us at the store and later this asshole called me and chewed me out for "taking advantage" of Lennon's death. I gave him the number of our corporate office and told him to call and to go to hell while he was at it.

[u4ic]

40. On the bus

I was coming home from high school in the morning (for some reason they closed it...storm? or storm warning?) I was taking the transit and someone was reading the paper- on the front cover of the Toronto Sun was the headline "Lennon Shot".

[maveric]

43. Watching Monday Night Football in La Mesa CA.

Howard Cosell broke the news.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

44. I was at work

all of 17 years old, pulling the 7 to Midnight at "The Gospel Voice of Northwest Alabama," spinning hot wax like "Jesus, This is Jimmy" and "Beulah Land."

We had one of those ancient, iron-lung looking UPI teletypes, the kind that used rolls of yellow foolscap and hammered keys through ribbons onto paper. One step up from a ticker tape.

It was in the hallway next to the studio. A bare bulb hung over it. You had to stand just so to keep from casting your shadow over the copy as it printed.

At the time, UPI would send a series of bells for various emergencies. New edition of the hourly round-up was maybe one bell.

Nuclear war was ten bells.

I was in between stopsets when I heard the thing kick 7 bells. We *never* got seven bells. Once it got past four bells, I was transfixed. I was wondering if I'd get home without glowing, what with the nearby nuke plant.

As I leaned over the machine, dodging the shadow from the bare bulb, I watched the slug run across, and "URGENTURGENTURGENTURGENTURGENT"

And something like "John Lennon has been shot. Unconfirmed reports say the rock icon has died."

I ripped the copy and broke it on the air, my voice cracking.

The fundies began calling the station and gloating and talking about how it was a good thing and John Lennon was anti-American and was now in Hell."

The next day, I was called on the carpet and told never to mention anything like that on the air again.

But I saved all the teletype copy. I still have it, even though the ink is faded.

On the way home that night, I stopped at the river for awhile. My friends were already there. We wept. We laughed. We smoked a *lot* of weed "for John."

[njdemocrat106]

45. I was only 9 days old when John left us...

At least I was able to share some part of my lifetime on this earth with John, even for a scant 9 days. I believe his spirit is as alive as ever, though.