John Lennon came to my school when I was 8 years old. Or am I imagining it?

“It was for Rick, the kind of make-up for the school event that we missed when we were in LA,” he told me, confirming that Lennon didn’t bring his guitar or sing. “Rick” is Rick Sklar, longtime program director for WABC radio and early Beatlemania champion. He is also the father of two students and a member of the PTA Through his connections, pop stars such as Patti LaBelle, Harry Chapin and even Alice Cooper have called facilities for school assemblies and performances. Lennon’s appearance was his last production.

“Let me know if you get the exact date,” Ms. Pang said. “I’m really interested now.”

I thought it was impossible, but then Mrs. Stern, the retired librarian, came back with a great achievement: She dug through the old boxes and found a copy of “Genesis” , a periodical high school newspaper.

There he was, on Page 3 of our February 1975 issue (Volume 4, No. 3): John Lennon, peeking out from his black and white portrait in a yellow hat and sunglasses wire.

“Beatlemania returned to Friends Seminary on Friday, January 23, when John Lennon visited our school,” the article began. Everyone remembers the year wrong. Unfortunately, January 23, 1975 was a Thursday, not a Friday. But there was another clue: the photo of Lennon was taken by a student photographer, Christopher Gibbs.

I called Mr. Gibbs, who is 66 years old and professor of music at Bard College, and told him about my quest. Did he have any other pictures of the day Lennon came to school? Alas, he did not think so. But he said there was another student photographer there that day, Scott Frances, a senior at the time and the best photographer at Friends Seminary. He shot for yearbooks and continued his long career as an artistic photographer.