1980 for a certain 10 year old boy

[DeRick]

When i was 10 in 1980, everything in my personal life and outside was falling apart, my parents weren't getting along and they'd divorce the following year, some "ugly truths" about my family was rearing it's head. At the same time, that's when i first saw the TV trailer of "The Shining" Hearing the music (with those "screams" and the scenes and that dang logo with that face on the "T". That gave me nightmares for weeks. And it got worse when i saw the movie.
Around that time, i was also discovering The Beatles which changed my life, their music gave me a "fantesy shell" whenever my parents fought. In December of that year, my gramma gave me the news that one of the Beatles was shot dead. That's it! The shell was gone. Horrable reality set in.
Years later, i read up on Mark David Chapman, and recently saw "Chapter 27", a bio about him. I've come to terms that it seems what happened Jack Torrance in "The Shining" happened To Chapman in Reality. It's kinda ironic looking back, how it all happened that same year in 1980. It was a VERY dark year for me, I've seemed to have drawn a link between Jack Torrance & Mark David Chapman, Wendy Torrance & Gloria Chapman, The Overlook & The Dakota, Dick Holleran (the movie) & John Lennon. Stephen King's book "The Shining" & J.D. Salinger's book "The Catcher In The Rye" (the book was fantesy but what happened to John and Dick was reality) (bear with me, i know it's a movie but i'm comparing the Kubrick movie with John's assasination.) And i was Danny
When i first heard The Beatles, at that time i felt they were speaking to me with thier music, but hey, i was only 10...and Reality reared it's ugly head. Even finding out my parents never loved each other, my dad became an alcoholic. all other stuff was happening in my personal life.
The year 1980 forced me to grow up, when i wasn't ready.
Please don't judge too harshly.

[bonovox66]

it takes some courage to be able to lay all that out on the line in such an open forum. All I can say is I certainly hope things are better now. This may sound cheesy, but I read this in a book when I was a teenager and going through some similiar stuff it said "life is like going to the movies, you go to the movies to learn or have fun". Cheesy, I know, but it made a huge impact on me. I took it as meaning that we have to look at life as a series of moments designed to either teach us something (that is what the bad things are for) or moments to bring us joy.

Haven't seen chapter 27 and not sure I'm going to. Personally, I don't feel like giving Chapman the time of day to watch a movie about him. I'd rather concentrate on the things before that horrible night.

Interesting comparison...

[drbecky]

I recently saw Chapter 27 &it brought by that night, when I had just moved to UK from Dallas,Texas,(yes I witnessed JFK's killing.) A friend in Dallas called me at four to tell me what happened before most of the UK knew it. The next day everything in the country seemed changed. The Beatles have been a shelter for many of us. Not to such a great extent as you, but as their lives have changed, so have ours. I commend your courage.