<p>I was almost 30, and living on Long Island as a grad student. </p>
<p>I met John Lennon at the Russian Tea Room in 1976. Got to eat half a dinner with him.</p>
<p>I saw the Beatles live at Shea Stadium.</p>
<p>They were truly the soundtrack of my life. I tracked with them like my S tracked with Harry Potter.</p>
<p>The day of Yoko’s ten minute memorial where I was on LI it snowed for that ten minutes only. </p>
<p>A great, great loss.</p>
<p>Stayed drunk the whole next day. At work. Sitting on the floor with my boss and all the staff attorneys. Didn’t get a whole lot of work done. </p>
<p>I think of John as one of us. Just another imperfect being doing his best to get a little better. Fighting the demons every single day and not always winning. That may not be good enough for some …but I’m O.K. with it. My heroes don’t have to be perfect.</p>
<p>My H & I were watching monday night football- ( or he was- we weren’t married yet- I was reading)</p>
<p>Lots of rare Beatles footage on youtube. look for jedaimanko.</p>
<p>I accept that people aren’t perfect- John was no exception- & I am not passing judgment.</p>
<p>Anyone at the Bruce Springsteen concert @ the Spectrum?</p>
<p>I’m with your Curm. Plus he shared his demons and his struggles with us to help us along too.</p>
<p>Sigh.</p>
<p>He looked in the mirror and saw his flaws himself. He post-Beatles solo work could be harrowing.</p>
<p>Not St. Imagine. Working class hero.</p>
<p>That’s where I was, emeraldkity. The shooting happened while Bruce was singing “Point Blank.”</p>
<p>Wow. Strange synchronicity. ^^^^^</p>
<p>I was in my first year of grad school and was studying for an exam. I was flipping through a pile of flash cards I had made when they announced the murder on TV. I couldn’t get back to concentrating on the studying very well. I remember thinking that this would certainly put a final stop to all the endless speculation and rumors about the Beatles getting back to together.</p>
<p>Matmom, I was in my Columbia dorm watching Monday Night Football. I, too remember Howard Cosell’s first announcement at about 10 minutes before 11PM. Then, just before 11PM Cosell spoke again to say that Lennon was reported dead.</p>
<p>The next morning when I encountered one of my floormates, he was in tears. Lots of us watched the ongoing TV news reporting with disbelief. I have two particularly chilling memories: the NY Daily News front page photograph of Lennon signing an autograph for the demon whom would shoot him the next day; Ringo Starr arriving at the Dakota and eerie fans in the crowd tearing at him to the point of trying to rip out locks of his hair for presumably souvenirs.</p>
<p>I was at the Buttercup Cafe at Alcatraz and College Avenue in Oakland. The waiter came up and told us that JL had been shot.</p>
<p>The cafe is no longer there, but I always think of JL when I drive by that intersection</p>
<p>Heard in the morning when I got up to go to school (I was a hs sophomore). A friend and I met at school in the morning and talked about it…we were worried about our other friend, who was a HUGE Beatles/Lennon fan. We were the ones to break the news to her…I remember her first insisting that we were joking, and it wasn’t funny…then she broke down crying. So sad.</p>
<p>Just seemed so much like a repeat of childhood John, Martin, Robert etc theme…another senseless violent act. </p>
<p>We had moved to Colorado. Woke up to the news. Pulled the baby into my bed and just stayed there a long while.</p>