A brief remembrance I wrote:
Thirty years ago today, a deranged man murdered John Lennon on the street in New York City.
I can still remember clearly when I heard the news that day, oh boy.
I was a teenager attending Cambridge-South Dorchester High School (CSDHS) at the time, so it was rare for me to wake up early in the morning (especially on a school day). My mom, in fact, would have to knock on my bedroom door a few times after my alarm clock went off just to get me out of bed.
On that morning 30 years ago, however, I woke up before the sunrise. I’m still not sure why. Because I couldn’t go back to sleep, I switched on the radio beside my bed and searched the dial for something to listen to before the dreaded alarm clock went off.
I found a station playing the Beatles’ classic “A Day in the Life,” one of my all-time favorite songs, and laid there in the pre-dawn dark savoring it. By the time the haunting tune had reached its dramatic finale, I was drifting between sleep and consciousness as that crashing, concluding piano chord slowly faded.
“John Lennon, dead at age 40,” the deejay somberly announced in the growing silence.
All these years later, I can still feel the shock of that moment reverberating like that endless piano chord.
Why is that, I wonder?
I was becoming a huge Beatlemaniac at the time, so that’s part of it. However, even non-Beatle fans could be appalled by the violent way Lennon’s life abruptly ended outside his apartment that night. It’s a perfectly human response to tragedy, however far removed from our personal lives it might be.
In my case, though, I walked through the halls of CSDHS all day in a daze, profoundly shaken by a sense of grief over the loss of someone I never actually knew.
Why was that?
More at link:
http://www.midshorelife.com/blog/dwayne/day-life-remembering-lennon
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