I'll go first.
It was in the spring of 1974. I was staying at the Olcutt Hotel on West 72nd Street, while going through Merrill Lynch training in NYC. Two buildings away on 72nd Street was The Dakota.
.................... .................... ...............................Hotel Olcutt
......................................................................................The Dakota
One Saturday afternoon, my roommate and I decided to go out to lunch. We crossed the street and were walking on the sidewalk about 15 feet behind some guy with two gals. My roommate, Sanders Cox, turned to me and said, "Keith, do you see how everyone walking towards us keep whipping their heads around, and looking back at the people walking in front of us? I think that's that rock and roll guy." I said, "That's John Lennon and Yoko Ono! Let's follow them." We kept a respectful distance, followed them across two streets, and watched them run into a Japanese restaurant. I asked Sanders if he liked Japanese food. He told me that he had never had any. I said that I have and would help him order. In we went, there was nobody there exept us, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and some other Japanese woman, sitting with them. They couldn't have farther than 10 feet away from us.
After a while, I decided to ask the waitress to go over to Lennon's table, and offer them all a drink on me. The waitress went over to his table, whispered something to him, came back to me, and said, "The gentleman, says no thank you." Okay, I thought, I'll leave him alone, and assumed that was it. However, I had a surpirse. They finished eating before we did, and when they got up from their table, John Lennon came over to me. I stood up. He shook my hand, and said, "Thanks, It's just too early for a drink."
........................................................... p.s. The Dakota is not only where John Lennon lived, it is also where "Rosemary's Baby" was filmed.