[thechat] On July 20th, 1969, humans first set foot on the Moon.

[Erika Meyer]

I was listening to the radio and trying to go to sleep and there was
school the next day... I used to get up at 5:30 am to walk to the
bus.  I was 13 years old.

They busted in on the radio, and they said John Lennon had been shot
and killed in NYC...

and they went into 2 hours straight of Beatles music and I listened,
enraptured by the beautiful songs.  My parents had the albums and I
grew up on them.

And the next day the small-town rednecks in my school said he was a
"dirty hippie" and  they were glad he was dead, and that his wife
Yoko was "ugly."  They were so mean.  I couldn't understand why they
responded like that.  I started to feel particularly alienated...

On the radio they played the songs from Double Fantasy over and
over... just the John songs, not the Yoko ones.  That is such a
beautiful album.

It was 1981.

Later, in high school, I wanted to be John Lennon, play rhythm
guitar, and have a group like the Beatles where everyone contributed
and no one person stood out above the rest.  I posed in the mirror
and tried to look like him.  I dreamed of him.  I wanted to be him.

Erika
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