In December 1980 I was 26-years-old. I had very recently received my Master of Library Science degree from Kent State University, and had just a couple of weeks earlier started my first professional position at the public library in Chillicothe, Ohio.
On the night of the 8th, I was drifting in and out of sleep in my efficiency apartment's much too small Murphy bed, with the radio playing softly as usual. I remember the DJ interrupting the song that was playing and saying: "This is so terrible . . . This is so terrible" over and over.
That woke me up.
Then he said something like "I am very sad to report that some idiot has just shot and killed John Lennon." For some reason, I distinctly recall the DJ using the phrase "some idiot."
I still remember how peculiar it felt that something so universally important had just ended at the exact same time that something so personally important, a new career, was just starting for me. Along with sadness, I remember feeling a very odd sense of guilt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GmVajkqLNU
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2 comments:
I didn't know you're a librarian -- this changes everything!
(By the way, the word verification I have to type in to verify my words is "parti" -- how appropriate!)
hey dan,
actually,i am a retired librarian. i completed my thirty years in 2005 - five at sinclair community college, one at kent state, one at chillicothe public, and twenty-three at dayton metro.
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