<p>Can you believe it was that long ago that John Lennon was murdered? Where were you when you heard and what were your reactions? I was in NYC and I remember that afternoon I truly felt that my youth was over. For me, that was the day the music died. I guess it was when the music died again, because Buddy Holly died before that, but that was what it felt like to me…</p>
<p>Wasn’t he shot late in the evening? I was watching Monday night football at my dorm when Howard Cosell announced it. I remember we all just couldn’t believe what we thought we’d just heard.</p>
<p>I worked in New York City at the time, in an office only about 10 blocks from the Dakota. I walked over there on my lunch hour a week or so later, when I figured the police activity would be finished. I remember just staring at the place. I couldn’t believe it had happened right there. It was so unfair that it had happened at all.</p>
<p>I remember that the next morning, commuters actually talked to each other about the murder on the train. This only happens in response to extraordinary news events. Ordinarily, riders on commuter trains to New York City treat each other as invisible. In the six years that I commuted, there were only about three occasions when we broke the code and interacted with each other. This was one of them.</p>
<p>I was in college here on the west coast and remember Howard Cosell announcing it during Monday night football.</p>
<p>My D is in college in NYC and she is going to Strawberry Fields today in Central Park with some friends.</p>
<p>So sad. I think about what kind of music he would have made had he lived. But like Marilyn Monroe and JFK, he will always be young. Captured in time.</p>
<p>I was at a Stevie Wonder concert in Oakland, CA. After the concert, instead of an encore, Stevie announced Lennon’s death, gave a tearful, impromptu tribute speech, then sang a couple of songs in Lennon’s honor to a stunned and shocked audience. It was one of those moments you never forget.</p>
<p>I was in college too, but was in my very last days as I graduated in December. I do remember that moment in my apt. and seeing the news on the tv.</p>
<p>Lennon was killed when I was a college freshman. Before the end of that school year, Reagan and the Pope were also shot. I wondered what the world was coming to. . .</p>
<p>11th grade. The news came over the radio while bf and I were in his car making out. We just stopped and went home sad.</p>
<p>I had gone to bed early that night, but woke up to the news on the clock radio in the morning. I couldn’t believe my ears.</p>
<p>Jimmy Cefalo, a former Miami Dolphin, hosts a morning radio show where I live. This morning he spoke about his memory of that night when he was playing against New England on Monday Night Football. Although the players didn’t hear Howard Cosell’s announcement of Lennon’s death, a lot of the people in the stadium did because they had transistor radios. Cosell announced the news right before the final play of the 4th quarter (the game went into overtime). Cefalo said that during the brief period between the end of the 4th quarter and the beginning of the overtime play, there was a buzz that began in the stands that grew louder and louder. One of the team assistants on the sidelines ran to find out what was going on and came back to break the news to the players that John Lennon had been shot and killed. </p>
<p>He played a recording of the off-air conversation between Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford about whether they should even mention it when they returned from the commercial break. Cosell didn’t think it would be proper but Gifford insisted that it was world-changing news and that they needed to announce it on air.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Those of us a few years older than you, who remember when Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy were murdered within weeks of each other in 1968, already knew what the world was coming to, and it wasn’t anything to be pleased about.</p>
<p>^^ Yes, we did. I didn’t hear until the next morning, in the car on the way to work. For a fleeting second I thought it was a hoax, or a rumor. But it wasn’t.</p>
<p>I was in my second year as a school teacher…I remember hearing about it but not much else.</p>
<p>Gosh, I am shocked that it was 30 years ago. I was with my Mum on vacation in Madeira. I had been very ill and was off work for about 6 weeks and was only going to be allowed to return part time. She took me on a trip to Madeira to recuperate and we were visiting a very posh hotel (we felt quite out of place) and having afternoon tea when we heard about it. We could not believe it. It is one of those events where you “remember where you were when”. My brother was a *huge *beatles fan and went into deep mourning, wearing a black armband.</p>
<p>As I put on my FB status, JL smacked around his first wife, was a truly horrible father to his first son, made cruel fun of Brian Epstein for being Jewish and gay. A great musician? Undoubtedly. But I refuse to join in the annual early December veneration of JL. All the lovey dovey with Ono and Sean doesn’t make up for hitting women. I dislike how he is now St Imagine.</p>
<p>Some of you are pretty young. I was in the later stages of my 1st pregnancy. I had just gone to bed when H called from work (swing shift) to let me know. I couldn’t sleep for most of the night.</p>
<p>I remember hearing it on WNEW and not believing it could possibly be true. I also remember a huge memorial service in Central Park shortly afterwards. There were vigils at the Dakota and people had written on the side of the building in chalk to commemorate Lennon.</p>
<p>I was a freshman in college. Don’t remember exactly where I was when I heard the news
but remember vividly that by the next morning the whole road (not actually open to car traffic)in front of the student bookstore was covered in chalk drawings and tributes, a huge mural that kids must have stayed up all night working on. We were supposed to be walking to class but ended up walking up and down just staring at it.</p>
<p>I was in grad school at Columbia. We were all working in the studio. I’m shocked that it’s been almost thirty years since I graduated!</p>
<p>I was working post grad-school on Cape Cod, so drove to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean and stared eastward across it, thinking about where he’d come from and all he had done.</p>