Guest column: 'Raising a Beatle Baby,' My little Beatles fan’s big lesson
For those too young to have any memories of the Beatles as a working band, but old enough to recall John Lennon’s death, Dec. 8, 1980, is our Kennedy assassination.
We remember where we were when we heard the news that day, oh boy. We remember the collective wallop to the gut, a blow we’ve never quite fully caught our breath from, even 35 years later.
For my adolescence and well into fatherhood, the events of Dec. 8, 1980, defined my life as a Beatles fan who felt an aching loss that couldn’t be filled.
But not for lack of trying: I read every book. I learned to play every song. I retraced the Beatles’ footsteps in London and Liverpool, first on my honeymoon with a woman who shares my obsession, and later with our daughter, Ella, who has been raised a Beatle baby since her birth in 1997. In some ways, we’re a family of seven.
This is the story, through a Brooklyn boy’s eyes, of the night that forever changed music. It’s the story of how my daughter taught me that Dec. 8 is a day best spent celebrating John Lennon and the Beatles. And it’s the story of a promise I plan to hold her to, many years from now.
By: Jere Hester
Source: NY Daily News
