John Lennon, 1960's Icon, Though Mistaken, Worshipped To This Day

The 1960's were a powerful time.  Those of us who became teens and adults then, born either during World War Two or in the first few years of the post-war baby boom benefited from growing affluence and optimism.  On the whole we seemed, statistically at least, bigger and healthier than our parents, though that seems to be proving as false* as John Lennon's "Imagine" philosophy.

It was Lennon's charisma which brought the Beatles an unbeatable following.  By all accounts he wasn't the most musically talented of the four. 

There are those who now say that actually George Harrison was the one, even more than Paul McCartney who is still producing.

And, yes, this will be a thirty years after the murder post, sort of.  OK, where was I?

Please remember that I live in Israel, which is seven hours ahead of New York.  Thirty years ago, I was pregnant with our first son.  G-d blessed me with relatively easy, comfortable and healthy pregnancies.  For some reason, that Chanukah night I couldn't sleep.  I felt miserable and nauseous, not my usual at all.  When the radio alarm went off at 6am, there was a flash-important news announcement:

John Lennon had been murdered, shot in front of his Manhattan apartment building.

I barely got out of bed that day.  Coincidence, I guess.  You don't have to agree with someone to recognize his contribution, whether positive or negative.

And where were you?

*I wonder how many of my friends and relatives will live longer than our parents who've reached well into their eighties and nineties.  Many friends tell me that they and their siblings have more chronic illnesses (high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.) than their very elderly parents.  And today there are a totally unprecedented high number of children with those conditions, which were once only seen in the middle-aged and elderly.