...I woke up on December 9th, 1980, Delivered the Daily Record to my customers,(late for many of them, I hated waking up earlier than 7:30)had breakfast, Waited for the school bus that took me to my 8th grade school Upper Elementary School, It was when I got off the bus I was confronted by at least three teasing school mates who were singing in a mocking tone the latest song from John Lennon "(Just Like) Starting Over"
That was when I found out John Lennon had been shot and died. I didn't believe them of course since I hadn't heard the news yet. Which was strange because when I was 13 I always listened to the radio (WABC 770 in pre-right wing days) before I went to sleep, and watched TV after delivering the papers (Which didn't have the news yet) in the morning before I went to school. Oddly I did neither So I didn't find out until the cruel taunts of my school mates informed me.
Needless to say, The rest of the school day was shitty to say the least. We didn't have the internet in those days and I wasn't able to get access to any TV to find out the truth. when I got home, I ran to the TV and yes indeed the horrible news was true. My mom told me that she found out the night before but didn't feel the need to wake me. I held that against her some time after that.
You see I was a huge Beatles fan. In 1980, It wasn't really cool to be a Beatles fan believe it or not. Black and white concert Ts were big at the time and the top groups featured on the chests of my fellow 8th graders were Van Halen, AC/DC, and Led Zeppelin. Cool groups of the time, Not a band that broke up ten years before.
So yeah, I wore what was an anachronistic "concert T" that featured images of the Beatles circa 1969 well past their concert playing days. 1980 was a bad year for me. My sister had died earlier in the year and I sought solace in Beatles music and comic books. Paul McCartney released a solo album I thought was good and John Lennon released an album for the first time in 5 years that was even better. So of course there was talk about the Beatles maybe getting back together again. The rift between Paul and John seemed to be healing and a new decade would be a good time to consider the possibility.
But of course that dream got shattered when John Lennon got shot.
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