Hey, it's Waters from the Waters Wake Up Call.
Today, December 8th, 2022, is the 42nd anniversary of the day we lost John Lennon.
A jerk by the name of Mark David Chapman actually is more than a jerk, but I can't really say much about that here.
But for some reason, decided to pick up a gun and go shoot John Lennon.
Who would do that?
I have no idea.
But I remember where I was when I heard, and I didn't usually go to bed that early.
I was about 14, so I guess I went to bed around 10.30, something like that.
But I had gone to bed at 10, and it was somewhere between 10 and 10.30 that I heard the DJ come on.
I was listening to the radio station I listened to in Minneapolis when I was growing up, KQRS.
And the DJ came on and he sounded just shaken, choked up, like he had been crying.
And I, you know, he sounded like this before he announced John Lennon.
So I mean, I'm at complete attention listening to what this guy has got to say.
And he goes on to say John Lennon was shot and killed tonight.
And he was dead on arrival, I think something like that.
But I couldn't believe it.
You know, I was 14 and such a beetle maniac.
Such a beetle maniac.
I mean, I would go to my study halls in junior high and I wouldn't study.
They had a couple of Beatles books behind the desk that you had to check out and you had to return them before you could even leave the library.
So I went every day to the library, read the Beatles books and, you know, went home and listened to the Beatles albums and I was all about the Beatles.
So when I heard John Lennon got shot and killed,
that night.
I just pulled the covers over my head and thought, well, this isn't true.
How could this possibly true be true?
John Lennon getting shot and killed.
Who would do that?
Who would do something like that?
So I was in disbelief and I remember the next day I went to school.
Like I say, I was in junior high somewhere and we were on the bus and the kids, my friends, were giving me crap about it.
They didn't much listen to the Beatles.
They listened to the, you know, the newer stuff.
And so did I, you know, late 70s, early 80s, pretty good music.
But I also loved the Beatles.
But after hearing John Lennon got shot and killed, and then the first song the DJ played was a song on the white album, of course, a John song called Cry Baby Cry.
And that's what I did for the rest of the night.
But I am ultimately curious as to where you heard the news.
Where were you?
What were you doing?
I was wedged in the backseat of our neighbor's car because it was her turn to drive carpool to school.
Okay.
Since
all six of us kids were wedged in the car, you know, prior to seatbelt loss.
Right.
And she was kind of this young trendy hip mom that always wore lots of makeup and had her hair just so and everything.
And that came across the radio.
And she got so upset.
I thought we were gonna like get in an accident.
And we're all looking at each other like, who's John Lennon?
I don't know who's John Lennon.
None of us have any clue.
How old were you at the time?
I was in fifth grade, I believe.
Yeah, I was a few years older.
I was like in eighth grade.
Oh, yeah, you were totally an adult.
Totally an adult.
Yeah, I was 14, man.
But you had no idea who it was at the time.
No, and then I felt really bad because my cousin, she had their posters and stuff all over her bedroom.
And I'm like, oh, that's the guy.
And I felt bad.
Your baby was going to be heartbroken.
Good morning, Mike.
How are you?
Well, I'm doing all right.
How are you doing, man?
I
just listened to you and I thought I'd tell you what I was doing, what John was killed.
Yeah.
Where were you?
What were you doing?
I was at the air traffic control tower at the theater at the airport working airplanes that night.
And I couldn't believe it.
Yeah.
There was some radio in the background.
I had to call my wife and what a shot.
Who would actually shoot and kill John Lennon?
I mean, I just couldn't comprehend
that.
There was silence in the tower that night.
We just couldn't believe it.
Nobody could.
Oh, I'll bet.
I hope you all were still able to concentrate on your job.
Yeah, we did.
We got through it.
But everybody
said
no way.
No, we thought it was fake for a while.
I did too.
I pulled the covers over my head and said, that ain't true.
That is not true.
Yeah,
yeah.
Then it started.
Everybody started talking about it then, but that's
what I
was doing, working airplanes.
I was just starting my career in 1980, and I was in New York City when he got shot.
Wow, where were you in New York?
I was actually in the Bronx delivering, I was a truck driver.
Okay, so you probably heard it on the radio when you were driving.
Yeah, yeah, I was all over out there that, you know, it happened, but yeah, I couldn't believe it.
It's just, you know, John Lennon, what do you ever do to anybody?
And you know, later I had heard that Mark Davis
Chapman was found not far from the Dakota after the incident.
He was he was reading Catcher in the Rye and I was reading that same book for a junior high book report and Mark David Chapman is reading that same book.
Wow.
kind of freaked me out you know
yeah
you're right that's
where most of the people got their news I got it from the radio but yeah a lot of people were watching Monday night
football yeah I've
heard that
There's also a theory that Mark David Chapman, who was a huge Beatles and John Lennon fan, was in the library.
He found some John Lennon book, and I don't know what it was, and I don't know where they got this quote, but it has some quote of John Lennon saying, you know, I never really believed in that peace and love stuff.
It was just something to do.
So that's what triggered Mark David Chapman, because from that point forward, he just thought John Lennon was a phony, and that's why he was caught down the street reading Catcher and the Rye, the main character of the book.
can call field hated phonies.
Well, thank you so much.
Have a
good Sunday.
Weekday mornings, 5 30 to 10
10.
