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Another sad anniversary

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by tommyp, Dec 8, 2006.

  1. tommyp

    tommyp Member

    Twenty-six years ago today, John Lennon was senselessly murdered in front of his NYC apartment building.

    I was only 13 at the time, and my dad didn't let me watch the second half of MNF games, so I missed the Cosell announcement.

    I do remember waking up and telling my sister about it, and she rushed into the bathroom and started crying.

    Over the years, I have developed a great amount of admiration for him and what he meant to that generation, and I am sad I was not able to enjoy him as those who had lived through his formative years.
     
  2. Columbo

    Columbo Active Member

    I was also 13, and at the MNF game.

    I'll never forget, as I got onto the Greyhound bus afterward... some mope saying that John Lennon had been killed.... by his wife.

    Four years later, I made a pilgrimage to the Dakota. What a spooky experience, especially after the sun goes down, especially on a frigid night, as that was (I had gone to a random Bills-Jets game that afternoon.... I have never been to a game in colder weather).

    That night, at about the time Lennon had been shot, Ringo Starr hosted Saturday Night Live.

    How I wish they had taken that $3,000 check from Lorne Michaels.
     
  3. Grohl

    Grohl Guest

    [​IMG]

    I was only five when Lennon died, but I'm a big Beatles fan. I finally visited Strawberry Fields in Central Park a few years ago and loved the vibe of the place, even though it was just an ordinary weekday afternoon. Lots of people -- all kinds, young and old -- simply listening to Beatles music, playing Beatles songs and feeling happy.

    I also wanted to note that the five-year anniversary of George's death passed just over a week ago. I thought he deserved some acknowledgment, too. Hence the picture of the two of them.
     
  4. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]

    We all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.
     
  5. TwoGloves

    TwoGloves Well-Known Member

    I think I'm the only person in the world who didn't hear the news on MNF. I was watching The Tonight Show. Wore all black to school the next day and black sweat bands in the basketball game that night.
     
  6. Ledbetter

    Ledbetter Active Member

    I was eight and I don't remember how I heard the news. My parents were never huge Beatles fans, but I knew something disturbing had happened.
     
  7. tommyp

    tommyp Member

    Bump for the late-shifters.
     
  8. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    I remember bawling like a baby when I first watched the movie "Imagine." Just the simple poignancy of that scene with the title song playing in the background, and then fading into a shot of John and Yoko in the White Room with the piano.

    One of the most surreal experiences I've ever had was when I visited the Dakota for the first time. Came up to the sidewalk, near the doorway, where he was shot, and just couldn't stop shaking. Terrible, terrible feeling.

    And tommyp, nobody said he had to be alive for you to enjoy his music just as much as anyone who lived while he was alive.
     
  9. tommyp

    tommyp Member

    Not saying that, Buck...I could have put it a bit more clearly: I would have loved to see him get old -- whether he would have enjoyed it or was a cranky old fart -- and how all that would have been reflected in whatever music he would have put out.
     
  10. Killick

    Killick Well-Known Member

    Throwing this out as a related note. If you feel a need to be a little closer to John, there's an obscure movie on DVD that VH1 produced a number of years ago. "Two of Us" is a fictionalized reunion with John and Paul, taking place on the same Saturday Michaels made his Saturday Night Live offer. Very, verrry good.

    [​IMG]
     
  11. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    I was in a newsroom taking high school games on the phone. The newspaper is dead now, too.
     
  12. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I was 12. There are certain days I remember vividly from that time in my life. One was the day Thurman Munson died, the year before. Lennon getting shot was another. I remember the Monday Night Football game that night, as if it was yesterday.

    Not to get too off topic, because John Lennon is certainly worthy of the remembrance, but the Dakota, itself, is a really interesting building. Those of you who have visited, know how populated that area of the Upper West Side is, and how many buildings, including the Dakota, line the park on Central Park West and sprawl westward toward the river. The Dakota was built in the 1880s, and at the time, there was nothing but farmland and scattered houses that far north in Manhattan. I've seen photos from the late 1800s, and it is really freaky. The building looks exactly as it does now, except there is nothing around it. It looks out of place.
     
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