Yoko Ono

[calimary]

41. Shit - I still miss him.

It happened on a Monday night. Shit, CountAllVotes - you take me back! 1980. I was working at NBC Radio in Burbank and had put in a full day's shift already. I was home with my husband, done for the day, eating dinner in my bathrobe. The phone rang. It was the night-side assignment desk guy in Burbank. This crusty-but-benign rumpled ol' dude who everybody loved, and teased for his growly voice, and quirky sense of humor, and how he was always a good sport and game for everything. Every one of us in the bureau, male and female, could do an impersonation of him. But he was also kind of out-of-it as far as keeping up with pop culture.

He called me at home and alerted me - that "uh, New York just called. One of the Lennon Brothers just got shot."

Okay, anybody old enough to remember the Lennon Sisters of "Lawrence Welk Show" fame - three pretty young virginal look-alike sisters with lacquered hairdos who were adorable in a classic 1950s way, whose singing style was this soupy-but-perfect three-part harmony? I froze for a moment. Kinda dumbfounded. Turned to the phone and just gaped at it. "'One of the Lennon Brothers just got shot'...'Lennon Brothers'"? And then - "nah... he couldn't possibly be talking about JOHN Lennon of the Beatles? Nah, couldn't be... ... ...could it?" And boom! I was back on the clock, throwing my clothes back on and grabbing my car keys to hightail it out to Burbank to work react on the unfolding story - for most of the rest of the night.

Sheesh what a night. We worked at an experimental young-adult radio news network, one that served rock stations, so this was a HUGE story for us. It was the ONLY story for a week. The full-on tragedy of it didn't hit me til Friday of that week.

I'm still not over it, either. Many times through the years I've thought back to his political activism and courageous outspokenness, and wonder what he'd think if he were still here. Up to as recently as last night.