Thirty years ago today...

[reynardo]

We had a home computer - a TRS-80 4K thing that let you play backgammon and Hammurabi. I was typing up a possible game on it, and my brother leaned over my shoulder and typed in "Guess who got shot?"

I thought he was telling a joke with a weird punchline. Then he turned on the television, and the reports were in. John Lennon was dead.

I wasn't born when Kennedy was shot. Most other famous deaths haven't made much of an impact. But that's one I'll always remember.

Do you remember what you were doing when you heard about John Lennon's death?

Comments

[sly-girl.livejournal.com]

John Lennon is dead? Crap!

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I'm going to make people feel old by saying this... But when John Lennon died, I was 162 days old, or thereabouts *innocent look*

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

I was only five at the time, so no. I think the Challenger disaster was about the first time I really had that sort of news seared into my memory.

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

That was on my 16th birthday, kind of ruined the day for me. :/

[sootysmudge.livejournal.com]

I was in Fifth Form at High School, so l remember it clearly.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

I do not remember... like loganberrybunny above, Challenger is the first event of that sort I remember.

But when I finally found out what I lost that day without knowing I was losing it---I was 2.75.... well.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

I was too young to care.

Not long after that, though I remember being viscerally offended that President Ronald Reagan didn't have the decency to die after being shot.

Which suggests that the threshold age of being conscious of the news is somewhere around seven-and-a half (I was younger than this in December 1980, and older than this in March 1981.)

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with you on that one. Vietnam made absolutely no impression on me as a child. The Munich Olympic shooting I only know from the records, and the same as the moon landing. I was aware that Watergate existed but not what it was. I know I knew in 1972 {aged 8} that Nixon was your president, but the first thing I really have an awareness of is the attempted shooting of Princess Anne in 1973. And I was 9.

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

Sadly I didn't know who John Lennon was 30 years ago, my parents skipped the entire 1960's music genres and were more into Lawrence Welk, Bing Crosby, and Englebert Humperdinck.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

The odd thing is that I was six years old at the time, and I do have memories from that age, but I do not remember Lennon's death at all.

[fluidsparkles.livejournal.com]

11/9 i recall cos my wake up was from absent partner. Challenger was an american thing but i remember feeling sad for the lady astronaut.

[waitingman.livejournal.com]

I was probably listening to the Rolling Stones...

I don't get why the death of a pop star has to be invested with 'Day the Earth Stood Still' importance. Cobain's death didn't move me much either ~ okay, he wasn't 'assassinated', but the way he'd been, & continues to be, painted as the lost genius of a generation smacks more of marketing than merit. Both Buckleys, especially Jeff, fall into this category as well.

Sure, Lennon's murder was a pointless act, but no more so than any other violent death that day or since. It didn't rally a nation or a generation to make a stand or a change, in much the same way as his naïve stance, songs & stunts for peace failed to make much of an impact beyond becoming one-size-fits-all slogans to be chanted at the rally of your choice.

A rebel without a clue about his cause, who retreated to sex & drugs (the 'infamous lost years' mid-70s), behaving like the misogynist git he really was, when the music world & the world in general stopped treating him like someone more popular than Jesus.

In short ~ I didn't much care in 1980 & don't much care 30 years later.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

For me it's more "news that startles, and you remember what you were doing at the time". Some events have been like that, others not so much. I can remember the train crash at Granville, and the Challenger disaster, but not the death of Elvis or the shooting of Ronald Reagan. Different things, different reactions.

[wingedkami.livejournal.com]

I was nine months old at the time, so it didn't make much of an impression. I've no idea when I actually found out he was dead.