Tuesday, July 27, 2010

They called me Beatle ...

Milk and honey


So you like the Beatles and/or their music? Me too. I first became aware of the now legends in early summer of 1963 when I was hired to help a weird person move. He actually was not in any sense weird; he was a genuine Beatnik and professor from the local college. He came into my regular barbershop on a Saturday morning looking to hire a few guys to help him carry boxes and furniture from a truck to his new "digs" as he called his house. I happened be getting a trim that morning and figured to help the guy for a few extra bucks; I was making $50 per week at my factory job and the promise of $10 for a morning's labor was too hard to resist. Ten bucks would buy an 18 gallon tankful of gasoline for my new Chevy convertible, a carton of smokes, and leave enough for a date at a drive-in movie and a bit of pin-ball money. Back to the Beatles. The guy had a box full of magazines and on top was a cover with a photo of four strange looking musician-type guys from some place in England. I picked it up and the dude noticed me looking at the photo and said something to the effect that "those spirits are going to be big soon" and he told me to keep the mag if I wanted it. The guys in the photo had funky hairdos and it wasn't many weeks afterward when the AM radio began playing their I Want to Hold Your Hand song. Before it hit the airwaves, I had already decided I wanted the look and I have not been back to a barbershop since that fateful Saturday. Problem; to go from nerdish crew-cut hair to Beatle shag meant I had endure a period where my hair looked like the Caesar style that was popular with gay men at the time. Of course I was an ignorant country boy and knew but little about being "queer" as it was called in that era. Soon however, I was being called a "fag" and "fagot" and other names and was even propositioned by a guy while in downtown JC. The local whores stopped smiling when they saw me walking or driving down the street and instead presented me with a glower and a pat on their backside along with a middle-finger salute. I was threatened with mayhem on more than one occasion and was sucker-punched at the roller-skating rink. My boss threatened to fire me and my co-workers shunned me. One good thing; the girl I was dating said I was "cuter than ever" and that was enough to strengthen my resolve to keep my hair long. Ah! February 1964 rolled around and I was ready. The Beatles were on the very popular Sunday evening Ed Sullivan variety show on CBS tv and millions of Americans were introduced to the future of not only popular music, but to a changing lifestyle and world that came of age at Woodstock in 1969. Most Americans past the age of thirty were aghast at the Beatle look; the band and their fans were sent to eternal hell from pulpits around the nation, and some AM stations refused to further play their music. The revolution was on! Times were good as many of my co-workers resumed accepting me and they even nicknamed me "Beatle". Prostitutes again waved and smiled as I went by and their salute turned to thumbs-up as they invitingly patted their crotches instead of their asses. Sweet vindication! During this time I went from shy and ignorant country bumpkin to a much wiser but still shy young man of the world.

Yep, they called me "Beatle" and though I've worn many nicknames since then, it is the one of which I am proudest.
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Have a Wednesday all day long!
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7 comments:

Tammy said...

bees rock. lovely photo

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Tammy.
Is this the kind of milkweed you buy at the store?

Anonymous said...

It would be wonderful movie about you, your youth and the community of JC in 60's. I love your story, Mr. Anderson "Beatle".

Songs of "Beatles"; simple, charming and brilliant. English boys had their funs also in communistic Poland. In 1969, 1970 I was a little girl and I remember some of my neighbors with long hair. Yes, they were cute. :-)

Tammy said...

No on the milkweed question. It does grow here as a weed too (if I can find it amongst the houses, sheesh, natural fields are hard to come by). But once I'm on a caterpillar raising quest every ounce of milkweed is golden to me and my babies. I like the story and Beatles music is a regular in our house. I used to play it for Tia and Cody when they were little after I picked them up from daycare. We would sing those songs all the way home in the car as our day apart from each other melted away. I always felt guilty about putting them in daycare as I had to work and those drives home w/ Beatles' music cranked up loud and us singing at the top of our lungs seemed to heal us and weave us back together. nice memories for us all.

Tammy said...

the cool thing is both Tia and Cody ages 19 and 21 have Beatles' music on their Ipods. timeless music man.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Jola.

I'm afraid any movie about me would be mostly sedentary as there was only spurts of memorable events, especially in the 60s. Things livened up a bit in the 70s.

The youth world was definitely ready to move past Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.

:-)

Anonymous said...

If the weather is decent this weekend, we may go picnicking at a place where milkweed, butterflies, and other bugs flourish. I hope to get some pics.

Your kids still listening to the Beatles is great; my metal-head son doesn't like them and I tried to explain that without their influence, he would probably be playing a harmonica instead of an Ibanez screamer.

Thanks, Tammy :-)

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