Where were you when John Lennon died.

[LittleClarkie]

I was just getting ready for bed, as it was a school day the next day.

My mom, who was watching MNF with my dad, heard the news, and thought I'd want to know. I cried into my pillow for a little while, then turned on the rock station, where they were already playing wall to wall Lennon and Beatles.

I'd always been more a Ringo fan, actually, but there was something so tragic about the fact that he'd just come back from such a long break, and how happy he sounded about life and all, that just ached.

And now, because I've been watching "Mr. Holland's Opus" on cable, Beautiful Boy is running through my head right now, and the line "I can hardly wait to see you come of age" is just killing me.

I don't usually react like this each year. Maybe it's because I've experienced death in my life now. I dunno. But for some reason I'm alittle weepy right now.

I've always sort of thought of John Lennon as our JFK. Not that he was a similar man with the same impact on our history, but just that people in my generation seem to know exactly where they were when they heard he died, in the same way the generation before could tell you where they were when Kennedy died.

So. Where were you?

[AtomicKitten]

1. 25 years. Damn.

Still a big fan of his music and his ideology. We could use him now.

Edited to answer your question: I don't remember. I just remember feeling like I was punched in the stomach.

[KitchenWitch]

2. I did not know about his death until the next morning

My mom came into my room and told me...I literally jumped out of bed.

She later joked that she would have the rest of the Beatles killed off by the end of the week, since it got me out of bed so fast.

[RandomKoolzip]

3. I was 5 years old. John was already my hero.

My dad played the Beatles records (and John's solo records) incessantly when I was wee, and I loved them.

He woke me up in the middle of the night, Dec. 8, 1980, to tell me the news.

It's one of the defining moments in my life...and it made me cynical. From the age of 5 on, I knew my heroes were fallible and mortal, anyone could die at anytime, and the good ones will always leave us too early.

We'll never see another human like Lennon. He's still the male ideal, the guy every guy would be like if this world lived up to its promises.

[Awsi Dooger]

4. I was in college in LA

Watching Miami/New England with my three roommates. I was actually in the bathroom when I heard Howard Cosell announce it, and my roommates react in shock. I think I was the only one in the apartment who focused on the remainder of that game, since I'm a Dolphin fan. Our rookie quarterback from that game, David Woodley, died of liver failure a couple of years ago.

[WindRavenX]

5. not even a gamete

Born in '85.

[alphafemale]

6. Watching MNF. It was surreal to learn such a thing from Howard C.

[liberaltrucker]

7. Working on a seismic crew in Rome, GA

Heard the news when I got to my room. My roommate and I toked a few and cried. No pee tests back then.

[SeattleGirl]

8. In the middle of a fight with my ex

That kind of stopped the fight in its tracks. But not, ultimately, the divorce.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. Having a make-out session with my (then) new girlfriend

I really liked John Lennon but she ABSOLUTELY LOVED him and it hit her pretty hard. She particularly adored the song 'Woman'. Jimi Hendrix' was the musician's death that hit the hardest, as I was a big Hendrix aficionado and I followed him around the country to several of his concerts 1968-1970. But Lennon's death really seemed to bring to a close the spirit of the 60's forever for me, making it just a golden faded memory. The Reagan years after that completely obliterated it.

[tuvor]

10. Listening to the Top 20 countdown. Eerie/morbid coincidences.

On Edmonton's K-97, right after they announced that he'd been shot, they played tracks from the next three top albums: Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar, Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC, and Another One Bites the Dust by Queen.

[LittleClarkie]

11. Inappropriate Lennon songs

"Johnny are you queer"

"I think I'm turning Japanese"

The things that run through my head sometimes...

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. Lying on my bed, watching the 8 O'Clock Movie

I think it was "Casablanca." They broke in around 8:20 with the news and I just sat there, stunned, for maybe 20 minutes. Then something in my head said "There's a story in this" (I was an editor on my college paper) and I started calling radio stations to get reactions from disc jockeys.

I can still feel it when I think about it.

Miss ya, John. We could sure use you now.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

13. Didn't hear till the next day

A total jerk of my acquaintance called just to tell me. The glee in his voice at being the one who got to break the news was so nauseating that I never spoke to him again.

I delayed a trip to spend Christmas with my family so I could attend a memorial. My mother was enraged: "How can you chose some stupid rock musician over your parents? You don't know how many more years you'll have with us!" She was right; my father died suddenly three years later, almost to the day. I don't like this time of year.

[hfojvt]

14. I also heard it from Howard Cosell

I went down to the dorm office for some reason and the people working were watching Monday Night Football. While I watched to find out the score, Howard came on with the news. I was like "Who is John Lennon?" Hey I was a SD bumpkin. I am not even sure how much I knew about the Beatles back then, certainly not the names of all of them.

[MissHoneychurch]

15. I was 5 years old back then

I didn't even KNOW who John Lennon was. And I can't really remember. Probably in Kindergarden.

[enigmatic]

16. Watching Johnny Carson

I can't remember who was on; they broke in with a special report that Lennon was killed, and I went into shock. I called my best friend (and fellow Beatlemaniac)and woke him out of bed; we talked on the phone for a few hours, while we both listened to WMMS and M105 in Cleveland as they played Lennon tracks, took phone calls, and read the latest news on Lennon's death. I'll never forget that night.

I was 17..

[LittleClarkie]

17. You and I are about the same age then

I spent the rest of the school year putting peace signs on everything.

[enigmatic]

18. hahaha

We did, too! That was my things for a few years afterword...