What were you doing when you heard that John Lennon had been shot?

[ohiosmith]

I was watching an interview with Bob Geldof on the Vancouver Show. Geldof was talking about how bitter John had become and how his music had suffered as a result. The segment was interrupted to report John's shooting. Geldof was overcome with emotion and nearly broke down several times as the discussion turned to John's contributions to music and society in general.

[madison2000]

1. I was at home in my apartment

and I told my roommate- we were both 23. She said "wasn't he one of the Beatles?" Total ditz!

[redqueen]

2. Sweeping the floor.

I'll never forget going in to tell my mom & sis. :(

[dolo amber]

3. Oh my...how ironically hilarious

:D

I was in bed...parents had the telly on...I heard it announced on Monday Night Football. My mom let me stay home from school the next day.

[WildClarySage]

7. I got to stay home from school the next day, too.

I was in my sister's room listening to her radio/8track combo portable player. I remember they played Imagine, and I just sat on her bed and cried.

[MrSlayer]

4. Watching Monday Night Football

Howard Cosell announced it. I wasn't aware of the significance at the time but I knew my parents were sad so it couldn't have been a good thing.

[KamaAina]

16. Yup, watching the then-Patsies blow another one in mid-playoff race

goodness that was a long time ago, wasn't it? :-)

Trouble is, John didn't get to "wait 'til next year" :(

[GreenPartyVoter]

29. Football. Grew up in a Patriot household

-------------------------------------
Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

20. Me too.

Watching MNF with first hubby. I was horrified I had to hear it from Howard Cosell and more horrified that it happened. What a loss.

[XNASA]

21. Me too.

[MaineDem]

25. Ditto, only cause the Pats were playing

I remember Cosell making the announcement. I woke up my husband to tell him.

Man, is it really that long ago?

[ProfessorGAC]

28. Same Here

First thought: "Really? Why Lennon? This must be a mistake or something?" Boy, was i wrong.
The Professor

[J-Lo Biafra]

5. Swimming around my daddy's glands

I was born in 1985 :)

[Champ]

9. Me too, born in '86

[Frozen Hamster]

45. and me

Born in '83

[Aiptasia]

6. Bob Geldoff should talk.. the boomtown rat whiney-puss

I was walking in between classes in school when they announced it over our school's loudspeakers.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

8. Lying on the couch (age 18)

Watching MNF with my parents. I also remember Howard Cosell announcing it. I remember being very shocked and saddened.

[Wat_Tyler]

10. My cousin was at a Teardrop Explodes gig in Glasgow.

So he heard it from Julian Cope, another Liverpudlian.

[billyskank]

11. Dunno. I was four.

[nini]

12. I was at work and was shocked when I heard it

I still remember the shock - it seemed to surreal.

[WMliberal]

13. bouncing in my mamma's ovaries

an swimming in my daddy's sack

[bloodyjack]

37. dude, that's gross

can't you just say that you were a potential human being, or something :(

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

14. Playing on the stairs at my house. 1st and only time I saw my father cry

[pagerbear]

15. It was my 18th birthday.

I was in the dorm room. It was my freshman year of college. I was probably studying for exams--or avoiding studying. Someone on the hall came in to tell us he'd heard it.

[buckettgirl]

17. I was being conceived! n/t

[CO Liberal]

18. I Was in The Leprechaun Tavern in Morristown, NJ

The Monday Night football game was on, and I heard Howard Cosell announce that John Lennon was dead. So I heard of the passing of a man I greatly admired from someone I despised.

[u4ic]

19. I was in high school

I was on the bus, and I noticed the someone reading the Toronto Sun, with Lennon shot or dead or something to that effect as the headline.

[flamingyouth]

22. I was almost 12 and in 7th grade

Truly, it was the worst year of my life. I didn't fit in at school, my favorite grandmother was dying of cancer, and I was watching TV that night when they broke in with the news that John Lennon had been killed. (Actually, I think at first they just said he had been wounded, IIRC.)

My mom started crying, and so did I. I remember falling asleep very late that night, in bed with my pink transistor radio, listening to KJR play a tribute to him and to the Beatles. It was a very sad night. :cry:

[noonwitch]

23. I was getting ready for school (my junior year of high school)

My sibs and I always listened to the radio when we were getting dressed. The station was playing non-stop Lennon songs and my brother yelled from his room "What, did John Lennon die or something. I'm sick of hearing his songs". About 3 songs later, the dj said that they were in the middle of a tribute, and said why.

[maveric]

24. Watching the Patriots game on MNF in San Diego.

My roomates and I were smoking a joint watching the game when Howard Cosell broke the news.

[BigBigBear]

36. Wasn't it Dallas-Denver? n/t

...

[mr_hat]

26. In Chicago, driving a cab on LSD north.

[sleepyhead]

35. I was in Chicago too.

In the local dive bar (Jimmy's at the U of Chicago if you must know) and all of a sudden the whole place fell totally silent. We had been involved in a deep discussion at our table and didn't hear it announced on the radio. Someone at the bar gasped and we were glued to the radio from then on.

[DODI]

69. I wonder if that is where my brother called from.

He was at U of C at the time. I was home in Hartford. I had the radio and all the stations were playing Beatles/Lennon music -- I knew something had happened. The phone rang and it was my brother telling me the horrible news. I still cry when I think of it. Whenever we go to NYC, especially after protests - we stop by Strawberry Fields to pay our respects.

[kayleybeth]

27. Watching football

The announcer said he had been shot and was in "grave and serious condition". I didn't find out until the next morning that he had died.

[frictionlessO]

30. was my first time home alone, came across the tv as a family friend

called to tell us... I was 9 and just learning who the beatles were but knew this was bad as our friend was balling. Fam came home and they all started cryin as well. I quickly became a huge beatles fan, they saved me from becoming a neocon!

rest soundly John, you are missed.

[micrometer_50]

31. In a friend's garage

Working on my motorcycle.
Heard it on the r-n-r radio.
I waited three days, half-expecting a resurrection.

Favorite ? - Imagine

[ohiosmith]

33. I was in denial for several days as well. I eventually called one of the

guys I drove to Cincinnati (from Columbus) with to see the Beatles. Oddly enough his last name was Chapman.

[micrometer_50]

51. I saw him only one time

It was in Washington DC, spring of 1970.
I was there with about 100,000 of my closest friends,
Nixon had city buses surrounding the White House and
even got to see the Lincoln Memorial. Some trip!

[ohiosmith]

57. I only saw him as a Beatle, that one time in Cincinnati.

[argyl]

32. My drinking was out of control,Reagan was prez-elect,and John is murdered

Fall/early winter of 1980 was one dark time in my life.Haven't had a drink in over twenty three years but John is no longer with us.I cried over John's death like I cried over Hendrix's death ten years earlier.

[yardwork]

34. I was at work in my dorm deli - somebody came in and told us

I was shocked but I didn't have time to grieve. I had to keep making peanut butter milkshakes for the sorority girls.

I was working at the same place when Reagan was shot the next year.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

38. I was 10. Since I became truly 'conscious' of The Beatles

(as a group and as solo artists) and their amazing contributions to the world (musically, culturally...), this fact really saddens me.

I really got into the Beatles (as a group and as solo artists) in late 1985, when my older sister went away to college and brought home a tape of Magical Mystery Tour. It totally blew my mind. Since then, I've been hooked. On Lennon's birthday and anniversary of his death..sadly, tomorrow marks 24 years... I light a candle to commemorate these milestones. G-d bless John Lennon.

[NoPasaran]

39. I was listening to the BBC World Service

An announcer broke in during a program (which almost never happened) and said something like "And now some sad news for music fans. The former Beatle John Lennon has been shot."

[ZoCrowes]

40. Was not born yet

I was still a cluster of cells in my parents sex organs and that cluster of cells weeped for days.

[NightTrain]

41. I heard it on the news the morning of December 9, 1980.

I was riding the school bus, sitting directly behind the driver, who had the radio tuned to a local station. The morning newsman announced Lennon's death as I rode to school. I was downhearted for the rest of the day (and beyond).

[Left Is Write]

42. I didn't hear until the next morning.

I was in ninth grade. I had gotten up very early to get ready for school, and my younger sister (with whom I shared a room) was still asleep. I sat on the floor in front of the mirror, curling my hair, listening to my radio with one of those old earpieces you stuck in your ear.

I remember it distinctly - Boston's "More Than A Feeling" was on, and as soon as the song was over, they repeated the news, as they did often all morning. I was horrified.

My best friend was a huge Beatles fan, and particularly a fan of John Lennon. She didn't go to school that day. She sat in her room in the dark all day, listening to Beatles records.

[HEyHEY]

43. Driving from Chilliwack to POrt Moody

I asked my mother what happened to John Lennon and she said he was shot by a "mental Patient" mind you this was in 1986

[Cooley Hurd]

44. The next morning...

After having an absolutely horrible day on the 8th (lots of teenager-end-of-the-world-type issues all hit at once), I woke to a new day only to find that my musical, political and spiritual hero was dead. I dressed, went to school and only broke down when I saw my girlfriend in the hall, who was an even-bigger Beatles fan than I was. We wept together right there in the hall, and missed our first class. The following Saturday, we went to a candlelight vigil in downtown Auburn (NY).

Damn, I wish John were still here, to offer the hope and guidance through these dark days...:cry:

[Hello_Kitty]

46. Getting ready for school in my sister's room

That's where the radio was. I was in 7th grade and a Beatles fanatic. I was crushed. Still am. :cry:

[enigmatic]

47. I was 17.....

Flipping between Monday Night Football and Johnny Carson; NBC broke in on Carson and said the news that he was dead. I had been a Beatlemaniac since I was 13, and I was in shock; I called my best friens and fellow Beatlemaniac and broke the news to him and we talked all night while listening to WMMS (I grew up in Cleveland), still in a state of shock. That was a bad, bad night.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

[NamVetsWeeLass]

65. WMMS? The Buzzard! They always fought WDVE

in Pittsburgh (where I grew up) for number one in the area. And I was Sleeping when Mother woke me to tell me.


on edit: Spelling Spelling!

[enigmatic]

66. Yep!

WMMS was GOD back then w/ Denny Sanders, Kid Leo, BLF Bash playing Funkedelic's "Maggot Brain" every morning at 2am......

[shesemsmom]

48. I was a work

working the night shift on OB, It was without a doubt a sad night

[Skittles]

49. I was at work

a coworker asked why they were playing so many Beatles records on the radio, and I said maybe one of them was dead. She said ooooh don't say that but alas it was true.

[lojasmo]

50. On my way to school....seventh grade. I cried.

[Burma Jones]

52. I was in College and...............

it was between terms. I was rehearsing for a production of Sam Shepard's "Buried Child" and was living in the Phi Delta Theta house at Knox College. I had met up with another student that was living in the house over the break on the way from the theatre to the house. We walked into the house and I turned on the TV to Channel 9 in Chicago where they had the tail end of the news tease before a commercial. All I caught was "has been shot dead in New York" My friend asked what was on the news and I said, "some big shot's been killed in New York, maybe Reagan, I dunno." We sat down and when the news came on, there was John Lennon's picture, the one from the White Album.

[mac56]

53. I didn't hear until the next morning.

In grad school at the time, staffing the desk that evening at my work study job. My best friend phoned me the next morning to tell me the news. I was devastated.

[AFSCME girl]

54. I was home from school that day...

and my Mom told me about it :cry:

[tyedyeto]

55. Over at friends for dinner

and had the radio on when it was announced. For some reason it felt like 1963 all over again. *sigh*

May you rest in peace John.

[tsakshaug]

56. I was in the OR

Just about to go under to get my knee fixed, when I heard them discussing it in the room, I didn't have time to say anthing, because the ane..........ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[scarlet_owl]

58. I was in my mother's womb. She was nine months pregnant

with me. Unfortunately, I took another month to arrive.

[Spirochete]

59. Driving home from the store

I heard it on my car radio.

[DoNotRefill]

60. cleaning my guns...

no shit.

[IcyPeas]

61. at home listening to the radio...

WNEW in NYC - Vin Scelsa reported it. It was devastating....

[lolly]

62. Studying for Final Exams, UCLA

Lived in an apt. with my boyfriend (now husband) in a cheap little dump of an apartment in West LA.

One of his friends stopped by, told us the news.

[MissMillie]

63. I didn't hear about it until the next morning

I was just waking up.

[Magrittes Pipe]

64. I was five.

It didn't really register with me at the time. ;)

[leftofthedial]

67. cleaning my pistol

actually, I was driving home from a performance and heard the news later that night.

[Courtesy Flush]

71. LOL

I hate to admit it, but I wasn't much of a Beatles fan, and I didn't bother to keep track of where I was.

[Arugula Latte]

68. Watching "Little House on the Prairie."

I was a sensitive fourteen-year-old who had recently become a huge Beatles fan. That was a dark time.

I remember thinking there was no justice that that evil old piece of shit Reagan had survived his gunshot and John Lennon had not.

[Courtesy Flush]

70. Lennon's been shot????