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I was probably doing finals or close to it at TAMU.
Between the academics and being a fish in the Corps of Cadets, I couldn't afford to have access to TV or radio. So if I even heard about it at all, I was probably under too much pressure to even care.
It is probably certain that by then I had heard of him (unlike Thurman Munson who I had never heard of until the radio announcement of his death the year before) ........but I probably didn't really didn't know who he was. Ringo and Paul, yes, John and George, probably not. One has to appreciate the atmosphere I grew up in.
In the 60's, I was in elementary school and very restricted from TV even if I was old enough to appreciate who the Beatles were. I think the only record ever in the house was Abbey Road and yes, I did play the heck out of it, but more for the music and not for the people singing it.
Add to it of being over seas a lot in the 70s, I just didn't have that much experience with them.
I was 9 when it happened and saw it on CBS News, was a shock to my young mind then, I naively thought that bad things like that couldn't happen to celebrities (*sighs*, the innocence of being young at that time for me)
I was a 20 year old college student at San Jose State back then. I googled and it was 7:50 in California when he died. December 8, 1980 was my Dad's 53rd birthday. After dinner, we had birthday cake and like the OP, were watching Monday Night Football. My Dad and I both liked MNF. When Howard Cowell interrupted the game coverage to make the announcement, everyone in my family was shocked, then depressed. It was probably the most "Jekyll/Hyde" birthday Dad ever had...very nice until we found out, but sad after the announcement. I probably would not have eaten any birthday cake if his death had been earlier in the evening (before we had it). It was indeed a sad day!
One of my friends was a passionate Beatles fan who collected all of their vinyl records. I called him that night to reach out. I believe a few other friends and I got together with him the following weekend to get his mind off of that terrible tragedy, but can't remember what we did.
On campus the next few days, the mood was very sad and subdued among most students and professors.
Last edited by chessgeek; 01-31-2019 at 03:07 PM..
Oh, I remember this so well. I was young (23 at the time) and had been married for about a year and a half. My (then) husband was puttering around in the kitchen while I watched tv, when the announcement came over the airwaves that John Lennon had been shot and killed. I was absolutely, totally shocked....couldn't even talk at first. Then my husband came out of the kitchen, looked at me and said, 'What's wrong?'. I managed to get out the words 'John Lennon was shot to death'. He stood there for a minute, then responded with 'Who? Never heard of him'...then went on to lament about what he wanted to eat.
We were divorced a year later.
*What was interesting was something I read, I think it was in Cynthia Lennon's book about her life with John, in which she described a meeting John had with a psychic many years before he went to America. I believe this was while he was still with the Beatles...a psychic had warned him that at some point while he was in the USA, he would be shot by an unknown assailant. Whether this is actually true or not, I guess no one knows now.
With my ex-partner, living large. Given that particular year, we did not have our house yet, so we were probably eating out or staying with friends who loved to have us come over.
How I miss my ex, the person they were then, so much.
But some people just are not good for us and it took us a good 40 years to decide that, even though I can tell both of us sometimes wonder if separating was the right choice.
38 years ago. Hmmm, May, 1981. I was 18 and a senior in High School. I had my High School sweetheart, a full head of hair and was driving my dad's '69 Mercury Cougar convertable. It doesn't get much better than that. I was probably listening to Zeppellin, Journey, Boston, Tom Petty, The Stones, The Who, or Michael Jackson. Running track and counting the days until graduation. Great memories.
I remember when Lennon was shot. Someone spray painted a sign on a building in my my town that said "Lennon Lives". The sign stayed there for a long time.
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