John on the streets of New York City

When John and Yoko came to New York to stay in 1971, the fans in the area were in for a treat.   Suddenly they were able to see John frequently.    It amazes me that the writer of this short encounter with John was sad that it had been "10 weeks" since she had last seen John.  That is nothing!   It must have been so amazing to just see John and Yoko out on the streets of New York like this.    This story comes from a fanzine called "5 Bites of the Apple" and it is one of the fan clubs that was connected through the offical Beatles fan club at the end.   It is actually a pretty interesting fan magazine and has a lot of insight into the world of Beatle fans in 1971.

There weren't any photos that went along with this story, so I took the liberty of finding some John photos from the fall of 1971 just to add to it. 

John Lennon Story

By Linda Woods

From  5 Bites of the Apple

Issue #4 (November/December 1971)

I must tell you a very funny story on what happened October 17^th.  Marie, Anna, Emma, Barbara, Linda and I were patiently waiting for John and Yoko to come out of the hotel.   After about a half hour of waiting, John and Yoko did come and it was MY turn to talk to John.   I must say, John was in a fantastic mood that day!  I went up to him (it had been 10 weeks since I last saw him!) and said, “Hi John, hi Yoko, how are you?”  John said to me, “Hi there….”  I said to Yoko, “Yoko are you going to watch Ed Sullivan tonight?”  Yoko completely ignored me!  John said to me, “Oh is that roobish about us going to be on again?”  I laughed nervously and said, “John, it isn’t roobish…” imitating him.  He looked at me and laughed hysterically. 

Meanwhile Marie, Ann and Emma were filming so John made those “famous” dance steps from “A Hard Day’s Night.” (I couldn’t stop laughing myself).   We all walked John to the limo, and by this time a crowd was gathering and I was getting a bit uptight because I had so much to say to John.  But I didn’t give up.   By this time I was on John’s side of the window along with Emma so I decided to talk to him now since so many people were pushing me.  I said to John, “John, I must tell you about channel 13 show…well I was lying there on my bed, minding my own business when all of a sudden Yoko started that screaming and I fell off the bed!”   He cracked up again.  I then at this point had my head all the way into the car window.  No, not purposely, but with all these other people were pushing me, John saw that I was getting a bit annoyed but still kept my cool.  I then told John that I was happy for him that the Syracuse event went over well and that I was sorry to have missed it.  With this, Emma whispered to me jokingly, “Yeah, I bet he missed you.”   With that, I said to John, “Did you miss me??” (Mimicking him in a “funny John voice.” )  He looked at Yoko, she giggled, and John turned to me and said (in the same voice) “Yes, we both missed ya.”  (His nose was touching mine when he said that!) 

  Then, these two Spanish guys pushed their way over to the car and singled to John that they wanted an autograph, so one of them pulled out a dollar bill. With this, John, still looked at me, put the dollar bill in his pocket!  (jokingly).  I said to John, “John, don’t do that…..give it to me!”  He laughed again.  I said to him, “John, I’d like to introduce you to two friends of mine.”  At this point, John saw that I was putting him on a bit so lifting his eyebrow he said, “Do you know them?”  I said, “No!”  Laughing, he gave me a look, so of to say, “Are you all right them.”  This one sweet old lady came over and said to John, “John Lennon how are you love?”    To everyone’s surprise, John yelled out to the lady, Ka Pasa Ka Pasa!”   Everyone roared!  The car was being delayed because of a parade on fifth avenue.   Finally the car was slowly pulling away and I said to John, “See ya John.”  He said, “See ya luv.”  I waved, smiling because I know him, yet I am sorry to see him go.