A Newspaper Boys Memories of John Lennon's Assassination

"I read the news today, oh boy."

A Newspaper Boys Memories of John Lennon's Assassination 

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"I read the news today, oh boy."

Fourteen-year-old boy

Riding my Bmx bike

Bradford Woods, PA

My First job

Newspaper boy

"I read the news today, oh boy."

Read the headlines 

knew little of life

The wind in my hair

In the Cold War's

Fading year's

"You better get yourself together

Pretty soon you're gonna be dead"

"I read the news today, oh boy."

December 8, 1980

Chapman waits outside Dakota

Lennon comes home

His son Sean waiting for him

To say good night

"Christ, you know it ain't easy

You know how hard it can be

The way things are going

They're gonna crucify me"

"I read the news today, oh boy."

Yoko John exit car 10:50 pm

Walk past Chapman

Gun pulled In the dark

At door of the Dakota

Across from Central Park

Lennon is gunned down

Four bullets to the back

John falls to the ground

A dream ended 

The night Lennon 

Lost his life 

"I read the news today oh boy."

Lennon cry's "I'm shot! I'm shot!".

glasses blood spattered fall

Drops days demo tapes

Face down bleeds out 

Final moments John fades

Sprawled out reception floor

Spirit leaves his body

Dove of peace 

departs and soars

"Your bones are weary,

about to breathe your last"

Roosevelt Hospital 11 pm

No breath, no pulse

80% blood lost

Doctors helpless

"All My Love" plays

The dream went away

11:07 pm his life over

"The dream is over

What can I say?

The dream is over

Yesterday

I was the dream weaver

But now I'm reborn

I was the Walrus

But now I'm John

And so dear friends

You just have to carry on

The dream is over"

"I read the news today, oh boy."

Chapman calm standing

West 72nd Street

Reading "Catcher in the Rye"

apologizes when police arrive

"Sorry for ruining your night."

"I read the news today, oh boy."

Last song recorded that day

"Walking on thin Ice."

Final interview that day 

Reflecting Lennon said

"My work won’t be finished

until I’m dead and buried."

John set out flew high 

now he did descend 

Your boat set sail

"on your way to your 

journey’s end."

"Happiness is a warm gun."

Chapman thought Lennon a poser

John said " Beatles more popular than Jesus."

Chapman's hatred began that day

After sunset on that NYC night

Chapman blew

John's life away

"I read the news today, oh boy."

Unbinding papers next day

"John Lennon Shot To Death"

Riding my BMX bike

Young, alive, wind in my hair

Something important changed 

Unsure why I felt despar

"He blew his mind out in a car."

Vigils at the Dakota

Beatles fans took their lives

Coming days, waves of grief

Rippled around the world

Some never healed 

The night John's 

blood spilled 

"You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one."

We all must live the dream

The battle for love one day

Will be won

"Love is the answer and you know that for sure

Love is a flower, you got to let it, 

you got to let it grow"

Last words John said to Paul McCartney

"Think about me every now and then, old friend."

"And in the end….."

Lincoln, Gandhi, JFK, RFK

MLK, Harvey Milk, Yitzhak Rabin

history's slaughter bench endless

If the light shines bright

Someone tries 

turning day 

to night

"Strawberry Fields Forever"

School abroad England 1987

Twenty-one on a train to Liverpool 

His mother abandoned Lennon

Abused you had demons humble beginnings 

Your life went far as shooting star shining

"Goodbye, goodbye, My love, goodbye."

Titanic registered in Liverpool

Lost in the Liverpool night

Looked out at the banks of Mersey river

Quiet said goodbye watching the river flow

dark waters took John to sea long ago

"Turn off your mind, relax, 

and float downstream. 

It is not dying, It is not dying."

Someday we all have to go

When young full of life we grow

At life's end we return to the earth below

Somewhere a little boy rides his bike

I still hear Lennon's voice singing

You saw through life's charade

Did your best to change the world

Your shining light has not gone out

The dream lives on I have no doubt

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"Newspaper taxies appear on the shores

Waiting to take you away

Climb in the back with your head in the clouds

and you're gone"

***

"Shine your light,

Move it on,

You burned so bright,

Roll on John"

Dylan

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“Imagine all the people living life in peace”

"What we’ve got to do is keep hope alive. Because without it we’ll sink."

Quotes from John Lennon that  live in me.

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."

"I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people."

"It's weird not to be weird."

"One thing I can tell you is you have to be free."

"The more I see the less I know for sure."

"The more real you get the more unreal the world gets."

"Nothing is real."

"All you need is love"

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I woke up thinking of John Lennon. I remember delivering newspapers the day after he died. I remember riding my BMX bike alive and free. 

Lennon's death influenced this boy who realized death comes to all, the rich, famous, and poor. My words above don't do justice to Lennon. What is the lesson for me? Love and live fully as possible now so, at death; we will have no regrets. What else can we do? 

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David Penn Arndt 2022

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Some of the last photos of John Lennon with Yoko Ono and his son Sean before his death.