John Lennnon 65th Birthday Central Park New York October 9, 2005

We were in New York on October 9, 2005 and waited until the last minute to figure out what to see and do there during a short stay. We thought of John Lennon, Beatle/song-writer of Across the Universe the song that inspired our business name. We decided to visit the Dakota apartments (where he died) which we determined were somewhere near mid Central Park.

It had drizzled earlier in the morning and everything was damp, very green and lush. We had walked quite a ways through the Park and began to hear what sounded like live music - guitars and voices. We recognized Here Comes the Sun, although the sun was nowhere in sight.

Rounding a bend in the path, we came upon multiple acoustic guitar players, a young boy of about six on a bongo drum - over two hundred tourists and fans - all ages, races and nationalities. People were assembled around a large IMAGINE mosaic at the center of merging park pathways.

There were beautiful and intricate collages, small watercolors and posters with messages to George Bush. There were flowers and what appeared to be letters and other personal remembrances. And, people were singing one Beatles song after the other. It was John Lennon's 65th birthday. We couldn't believe our luck!

We joined these fans and tourists singing Beatles songs for a couple of hours. The guitar players knew every song that the crowd asked for . . . and the fans knew all the words. It was amazing stumbling upon this and it was hard to tear ourselves away. We thought we'd return to the birthday celebration that evening, but didn't make it back. We can only imagine that it was festive.

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On January 14, 2009, we received an email directing us to the following cool video of the exact same event. All the cast of characters are there - along with the crowd singing Beatles songs. Click here to watch/listen.