"If You Can Remember Anything about the Sixties, You Weren't Really There"
(NOT!)
The above Paul Kantner quote is not quite true. Millions of us were there, and most of us remember it just fine.
Today on my long walks I have been yanked back to an electrifying evening 50 years ago, when I and millions of others sat glued to our television sets, listening to - screaming. We couldn't really hear the music, but it didn't really matter. And it was HARD not to scream ourselves; excruciating not to be able to say anything, for our fathers were in the room with us and might be scandalized.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amayzing/11846526656/
Today I have heard both Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney reaching back to think out loud, while their star-struck interviewers fawned. The fawning is probably understandable, and I can't really blame them. I, too, would probably be fawning.
For when The Beatles were reaching a peak in their popularity, I had a very vivid dream which has never faded away. In the dream, I was walking along a sidewalk in London one evening when a black taxi paused in the street beside me. I looked over at it, and instantly knew that I should, and I would, climb in. Someone opened the door, and in I got - right onto the lap of Paul McCartney! He was wearing the black suit I had seen on Ed Sullivan, and his hair was just the way it had been then. Black, clean. What my father would call 'too long'. We talked about something which I am sure was very important, and then I woke up.
How sad I was to wake up! I at first thought it had all been most wonderfully real. But the face of Paul began to fade, and I heard my mother calling. Time for school. -SCHOOL?
What a rude awakening.
Lots of us are probably reaching back to think out loud today, recapturing a time which marked the beginning of the Sixties. So much lay ahead, and we didn't know. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" would become "Why Don't We Do It In The Road", and something of the first innocence would slip.
But for a few moments today, I was that girl of the Sixties once again, glued to the TV. Only this time I wasn't quiet, as I walked those miles on a cold, wintry day.
No. Today I sang right out loud along with John, Paul, George, and Ringo, dancing around in the snow.
"Oh, yeah, I'll tell you something
I think you'll understand.
When I say that something:
I wanna hold your hand!
I wanna hold your hand,
I wanna hold your haaaaaaaand!"
-Lennon/McCartney, 1963
And no one was scandalized.
See you along the way!
the SconeLady
*(many memories today were revived by conversations with good friend GK-T)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/93222379@N04/8573435676/
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/amayzing/11846526656/">tommaync</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/93222379@N04/8573435676/">Jimmy Big Potatoes</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
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