Where were you...Dec. 8th 1980

[BruceMirken]

I was 22 years old, working in a restaurant in Hollywood. Someone heard it on the radio and said something as I was close to getting off my shift, but while I was shocked, it didn't completely register. It didn't hit me till I got in the car, turned on the radio and they were playing John's music. Then the DJ came on and spoke, and was clearly fighting as hard as he could not to just break down sobbing, and that was the point where I lost it, crying my eyes out. I don't really know how I made it home alive. I cried pretty continuously for the next two or three hours, until I was finally too tired to stay awake.

[Genuine_Indian_Guru]

I was Nine and it was my brother, 12 years my senior anounced it to the family. I remember it shook us up pretty bad.

I knew John Lennon my whole life. I have a sister 14 years my senior and as I said a brother 12 years older. So as you could well imagine I was properly tutored.

When I think back to that time..the memory that stands out most is of me getting in to school the next morning in the driving rain , earlier than usual and the only other kid that was there was a girl named Stacey and if there was to be any other kid aside from myself affected by such a tragedy it would have been her. Here parents, hippies, had her young and she was exposed to the music.

So her and I just sat and spoke about and grieved about it.
Strange yes, us being 9 and all, but true.
A sad moment in time but whenever I think back, its a very warm memory.

[funkbeatle]

Me I was just a poor little boy at age 9 in Buenos Aires, but I can remember that was shocked for the Dec 9 morning tv news announcing Lennon was shot dead last night!! Those images from our b/w tv set kept in my mind since then and keep so clear like happening today!! Mi papa and mama loved and keep loving the Beatles and so do I since a little boy and that sad news impressed me forever...You know the heroes never die to a child, and I thought John was one of the Bealte heroes.

[Rene]

Intresting to me how we remember.
And I love it that we are all different ages and still have that connection.

[JimmyMcCullochFan]

I wasn't born yet until 1987 but am I still sad every December 8

[SaraStarr]

You know I was only 4 years old when this happened so I'm not really sure where I was but a sad day indeed...

[Paulo]

I was on highschool, 15 years old. It was afternoon, maybe around 4 or 5 p.m. During a break between classes, I was standing there chatting with mates and heard a group of older students next to me talking about John Lennon being killed.

I didn't quite understand what they were saying, but, for the rest of the day at school, I kept thinking about that conversation.

Later on, I had to watch the news on tv and there it was. My worst feelings and thoughts were, unfortunately, confirmed. I remember the news showing footage from New York and then, while continuing the report, they put the Beatles singing If I Fell from A Hard Day's Night movie.

That's when I realised the full size of the tragedy. Those 4 people there were no longer 4. John wouldn't be there no more. And tears rolled from my eyes.

[Ringo_Marr]

I was in 3rd grade then, asleep when it happened, but my mother woke me the next morning and told me "your favorite Beatle died last night." It is one of my most vivid childhood memories...I remember it like it happened yesterday.

[Harrythebannister]

It was the morning of my Maths exam. I was 15 at the time and was in total shock. Maybe the stress of the exam took my mind off of it. I don't know, anyway I came top in my year with 96% (thanks John!!)

[mervap]

I was watching Monday Night football (american) on television when the news broke...Howard Cosell said a few words about the "nice young man" who had paid a visit on that show, the same night, incedently, that Ronald Reagan was there. I was 14 and was just becoming a Beatles fan and that probably contributed to my becoming a bigger Lennon fan...for a number of years I thought Macca was just a pretty boy who'd written a few hits with the Beatles and that Lennon was the REAL deal...of course, youthful certainty led to more aged wisdom (I hope!) and I now know there were FOUR real deals in that group.