The Day I Became a Beatles Fan

When discussing phases of adolesencene, a large group of people can signify the Beatles as a part of one phase of their life. In 1980, a small group of my friends were just getting into ther Fab Four, and I remember wondering what the fuss was about.

Then, on the morning of December 9, 1980, I woke up at our apartment at 739 Hausten Street, grabbed the morning paper, The Honoulu Advertiser, and opened up to the glaring headline. It said something like "John Lennon Killed by ex-Honolulu Man". It was news, for sure, and doubly so since the murderer had a Hawai'i connection.

I immersed myself into Beatlemania, my own form, tailored to living in Hawaii in the 1980s. This was the pre-wikipedia, pre-digital, pre-net days, when you had to dig to discover things about bands.

Ask anyone who knew me then, from December 1980 to June 1982, I was in my "Beatles" phase. When playing Trivial Pursuit with my family, there were objections if I ever pulled a Beatles question. The end came as the Summer of '82 dawned and I bought Mötley Crüe's Too Fast For Love and the Scorpions' Blackout.

Lennon is one of those people you wonder about, how much more amazing music would have come to us?