OT: Another do you remember when: John Lennon's assassination

[PacoSwede]

it's interesting how tepid so many of the responses have been. maybe a generational thing?
i remember it as a significant marker, a time stamp, for the 'youth' culture that started to emerge in the early '60s and was losing its promise as to '70s waned. .. a whole lot of major changes came to America as a result .... i won't go on -- but here we are now. fill in the blanks.
on dec 8. i was making odd sounds with her piano in the too-large new haven house my fiancé (we never wed) had bought that summer. the report about lennon came as a bulletin over the radio.
it was unbelievable, coming out of nowhere in the holiday season
why john lennon????? he was just 40 and starting to write again. what could he have created in the extra years we were denied?

 

[dbmill]

I was a student at UConn, and was watching Monday Night Football at the Student Union when Howard Cosell made his announcement. I immediately went back to my dorm. A huge John Lennon fan lived on my floor a couple of rooms away from mine, so I wanted to be with him at that moment. It was definitely a memorable night.

A couple other deaths I clearly remember hearing about at UConn.

First, early on in my freshman year at UConn. I was trying to sleep. I started hearing a drunk shouting out a window at about 1:30 in the morning. I thought he was saying "Paul is dead", the well known Beatles saying. Then instead of Paul, I thought I heard "John Paul is dead". The Pope? I immediately turned on my radio to a news station, and sure enough, they were reporting on the Pope's death. That's some way to get your news.

Next, I recall getting a haircut at the barbershop in Storrs. The radio was on, and up came a report on the death of Alfred Hitchcock, who is now one of my favorite movie directors of all time.

 

[Centerstream]

I felt from a lot of the BYer's posts on the various OT threads that many probably grew up in the 50s, 60s and/or 70s and that the shocking assassination of John Lennon was not quite as memorable as the assassinations of JFK, RFK or MLK or the first Moon landing but was close. I believe that The Beatles redefined music for "my" generation and for future generations, which in my mind made it so memorable.
I guess I was mistaken.

 

[Scud49]

I was living in Denver at the time, watching MNF, and it was simply a massive stunner for me, totally unexpected of course. I grew up with the Beatles, and they remain my all time favorite group. JFK's assassination is still the biggest in my mind, closely followed by 9/11, the Moon Landing, and the RFK, MLK, and John Lennon murders.

 

[Blueballer]

Like it was yesterday. Not the night of, but the following morning on the way to work. Heard it on the radio and went into an immediate funk. I had to hear them say it twice because I couldn't believe they actually said he was shot and killed. What an incredibly sad day.

 

[Buzzyboy]

I was watching Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell and I think Don Meredith and Howard suddenly announced John Lennon's death .... he was obviously deeply saddened as I think he had a personal relationship with John .... it was obviously a sad night for oh so many people and for the world of music ....

 

[j66kicker]

I was watching Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell and I think Don Meredith and Howard suddenly announced John Lennon's death .... he was obviously deeply saddened as I think he had a personal relationship with John .... it was obviously a sad night for oh so many people and for the world of music ....

I remember seeing John as a booth guest of Howard's on MNF