25 years ago today...

...I was developing some photos in a home darkroom (in a house I shared with three other women). I had the radio on, which is how I came to hear the news that John Lennon had been shot not too long after it happened (I wonder how long that was, in those days? Would it be quicker in these Internet days? Maybe by a few minutes.)

It was afternoon, Sydney time. Later that evening I went to a meeting of a gay collective I was in (ah, those were the days, 25 long years ago indeed). Several members were my age (24, then) or older, so of course John Lennon meant something to us - he meant a lot, in fact. I don't recall us being personally shaken so much as very sad and surprised that this could happen. It was good to be with a group of people who were able to openly reminisce.

A Beatles single was the very first record I was allowed to put on the turntable all by myself (aged seven or so). In the years just before his death I'd been very taken by Lennon's latest albums, the rawness of songs like 'Mother'.

There've been so many brilliant people lost to gun violence in the US.

Later: More Lennon thoughts here.

Comments

[Sandra]

I was in my dorm room and I also had the radio on. I never even listen to the radio nowadays. I remember feeling horrible for Yoko Ono, because she was with him when he was shot.

[elsewhere]

On the day John Lennon died, Alexander McIntosh and I went and busked at the Quay then spent the proceeds on watching the Return of the Jedi and our usual at MacDonalds (regular fries, a quarter pounder and a chocolate thickshake, all for $3 back then). We did wear black armbands, though.