Shot outside the Dakota building

Still feeling under the weather and today really isn't the best day for it.

I've had lots of memorable birthdays but my seventh birthday sticks in my mind. Well, I suppose it was the day after that really sticks in my mind. For some reason I was off school and I was in the car with my dad on Friday the ninth. He had the news on on the radio and I wasn't really paying attention to it. Suddenly my dad seemed in a really odd mood. I asked him what was up and he asked me to be quiet for a minute.

At that point I started paying attention to the radio, and the report was about someone having been shot in New York the night before. Eventually the name John Lennon was mentioned in the report. My dad must have heard it before me. I knew who John Lennon was at the time but the significance of it didn't really sink in probably due to my age. What really struck me was how it affected my dad, I'd never seen him like that before, I think he was crying at one point. I'd imagine a lot of his generation felt the same way.

I sometimes wonder on my birthday what he'd have achieved if he'd lived beyond 1980. Not that what he'd achieved up until that point was insignificant, just that with his popularity he could have played an even bifgger role in the peace movement than he already had.

RIP John Lennon