I was working as a bagger at a grocery store. I VIVIDLY recall it. A customer was in line, I was bagging her groceries and she just sort of softly said, "Marvin Gaye is dead." She said it with such little emotion, it caught me and the cashier off guard. I said "What?" and again, with little-to-no emotion, she just said "Marvin Gaye is dead."
I thought it was an awful April Fool joke and I sort of chuckled uneasily. I remember thinking that if I did give this weak little laugh, that would mean it truly was a bad joke and that Marvin Gaye was alive. I honestly remember that though about the laugh and dreading the idea that this wasn't a joke. She then told us the few details that had come out, being that it had just broke on the news. She paid for her groceries, and then said "it's such a tragedy," as she walk out with her cart [[she also said "thank you" almost robotic-like.)
I don't recall much else about that day at work because I was kinda numb. I just went into auto-pilot. I remember trying to listen to every customer's conversation hoping someone would say, no it was just a joke, but that didn't happen.
Once the longest day ever at work ended, I got in the car and turned on the radio and it was confirmed. I didn't even really cry when I heard my grandfather had passed away but here I was crying all the way home, running into the house and telling my mother with that same lifeless, robotic voice that customer used in telling us at work about Marvin's having been shot. She already knew and was upset as well. I went into my room, turned on the radio. A station was playing nothing but Marvin Gaye. When they got to "What's The Matter With You Baby" with Mary Wells, there was something about that song. Of all the songs I heard that night, that song is the one that really made me cry even harder. Maybe because it wasn't really a sad song, but the ending just kinda flipped a switch. This song was supposed to be lighthearted but Marvin wasn't around any longer, so how could I take this song in a light way?
That was a rough day.
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