December 8th, 1980 - How Did You Hear The News?

Howard cosell

My dad coming home at midnight. I had fallen asleep watching MNF on the couch. He told my mom. Couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.

I was at my grandparents' house. My grandmother had a little Sony 6" TV on her kitchen counter and we stood there together watching the live news coverage.

I was 4 so I probably heard about on the fuzzy local channels at my grandparents. But I don't remember it.

was at AU studying for finals

went to Mama Goldbergs (sandwich joint for those uninitiated) around 9pm CST when I found out

bombed my final the next day (possibly unrelated)

weird coincidence, my roommate/bandmate and I had just watched Help on WSFA out of Montgomery a couple of nights before

On a cold December evening
I was walking through the Christmastide
When a stranger came up and asked me
If I'd heard John Lennon died
And the two of us went to this bar
And we stayed to close the place
And every song we played was
For the late great Johnny Ace

I was in the 7th grade and heard about it the next day at school. Then got more details later that day on the national evening news.

Surprised I’m only the second one in the thread who also heard it from Howard Cosell on Monday night football. Was a high school freshman watching with my dad and eating a bowl of cereal, which I liked to do as a nighttime snack back then.

The Beatles were a little bit before my time but thanks to having a brother 16 years older than me they were my favorite group. That being the case I looked up and saw my dad looking over at me with some concern. My jaw was dropped. I can remember that well.

All I could do was put my cereal in the kitchen and just go to my room and turn the radio on and of course it was all John Lennon music. 14 years old and cried myself to sleep. Not ashamed to admit it.

I was actually at Strawberry Fields Saturday (the 9th) 2 days ago. It was really crowded. There's a pretty healthy busker game where they seem to take long, extended turns - and most were pretty good.

Lennon was always scared of being shot in the US - especially very early on. Happiness Is a Warm Gun was his take on the absurdly over the top nature of gun culture (I think it was taken from a real ad from a bank giving away guns for setting up accounts.)

Crazy that he's been dead longer than he was alive. This is the early death that pisses me off more than any I can think of. I am 100% certain he and the Beatles would have matured into another excellent version of their personal and professional selves. We have all been robbed.

quote:

---

Heard it on the radio.

---

Same here.