Darren remembers 26 years ago

It's hard to believe that it has been 26 years, December 8, that John Lennon was murdered. It's a day I remember well. It was a mild, damp Monday night. I was big into the Doors then. December 8 is Jim Morrison's birthday. I was listening to a commercial rock radio station play the top ten Doors songs (at 10PM) as voted on by its listeners (I voted for "The End," which was number one). The Patriots were playing on Monday Night Football (at least I seem to remember they were). I hate the Patriots. The 11:00 news came on and at the end, the news broke, but I went to bed not aware that John had died...just that he'd been shot.

I wasn't concerned. John Lennon couldn't possibly die. I heard the bad news when I awoke in the morning. I tuned into WINS as I made myself breakfast. I remember going cold. I was in my second year in high school. That week, I cried a lot. I kept a scrapbook, which hopefully is still around somewhere, of the newspaper coverage. I had my parents drive me down to the Dakota that Friday after school. I left a flower for the doorman to give to Yoko. The vigil was that Sunday afternoon...ten minutes of silence centered from Central Park. John and Yoko's album Double Fantasy had just come out a few weeks earlier. It was such a great time. It was terrific to have them back. These were John's first new songs in five and a half years. Six for Yoko. John's "(Just Like) Starting Over" was a hit. Then those shots were fired.

Darren DeVivo
12/7/06