My Day With John Lennon

In my last post I said I had no interesting stories regarding John, but now that has changed. Last night I had one of the most interesting nights of my life. My friend Mark and I had decided to go to Strawberry Fields to show our respects for the great John Lennon. We left at 5:15 PM which mean I would have to leave directly from my Spanish class to catch the train. I had been carrying my books at the time and thought it would be a hassle to carry them so I figured I would put them in a bush and I would grab them on the way back, because honestly, who wants to steal a Spanish book?
We arrived at the train station on time and got our train and arrived in Strawberry Fields at around 7:00 PM. What a site it was, thousands of people were there, there were tons of reporters, and cops everywhere you look. In order to actually get into Strawberry Fields we had to wait on a twenty minute line, but it was all worth it. Once we got in we met some of the most unique people I have ever met. It honesty seemed that nobody was really quite sane; regardless they were all extremely nice. It was such a great moment, people with their guitars, drum sets, tambourines, bells, basically anything that makes noise was being used, even a kazoo… It was just a non stop party, singing Beatles songs and Lennon songs all night long. We had expected to leave at around 9:00 PM which didn’t exactly work out the way we had planned. It was just so touching how everyone came together for this legend that touched the world with his music and words. At 10:55 PM there was the first moment of silence to remember the time he was shot and one at 11:15 to commemorate the time he was declared dead. It was just such an incredible experience, complete silence in a crowd of thousands all holding up the peace sign. After that the music and fun continued and the “Imagine” mosaic was filled with flowers, drawings and candles. We stood there singing and dancing in the cold for a total of over six hours.
Eventually a reporter came up to my friend and I and asked us a few questions, I told him how John had affected my life and affected my politics. Now what is unfortunate was I was unable to hear the broadcast. We had called our friend to ask what the latest train time was coming back home and to our dismay we had already missed the final train. We tried desperately to find a way back but there was no such luck. We had to sleep over in New York Penn Station for six hours. We got there and decided to walk around the city which we did for an hour and actually managed to walk over forty blocks, we got stuff to eat and met a fair share of characters and of course it wouldn’t be New York City if someone didn’t offer you drugs. Once we got back to Penn Station my friend had slept but instead I bough a newspaper because I couldn’t fall asleep. Time went by rather quick and we caught a train at 6:30 AM. We arrived back to our town at 7:00 AM and were accompanied by what looked like a blizzard. Of course we had to walk a mile through it to make matters worse and I also had to walk out of my way to get my Spanish book which I had buried in a bush. Of course it was covered under around three inches of snow and was soaking wet. I got back to my room and all I could say is, if someone asked me if I could do it all over again for John I would reply…HELL YES! Anything for you John! The pictures you see are what I took with my cell phone camera so obviously don’t expect the greatest quality, one is of the “Imagine” mosaic and the other of the moment of silence.