Beatles Anniversary - Boomer on the Loose

So many anniversaries this year, especially 50-year ones.

 Wow, 1964 was a big year for us Boomers!  I was in high school, and I definitely remember the Beatles in their first TV appearance on Ed Sullivan.  They looked pretty small and, of course, black and white, on our little TV.  But it was the first time teenagers' tastes were displayed in prime time TV.  And it's true--everybody at school started talking about them, and buying records for the first time.

  Elvis had been around for a while, but nobody I knew cared about him.  He was only for hillbillies, we thought, not urban kids near Chicago.

 We girls immediately starting divvying up the Beatles for our favorites.  I picked George, since he was "The quiet one", and everybody liked cute Paul.  Next, was Ringo, because he was rather goofy.  John appealed to the intellectuals, so I wanted George because he was less a populist choice. 

 Boys started growing their hair a bit, and girls wore "Beatle caps", which were like English workingman's caps.  Our yearbook devoted a whole page to Beatles fashions.

 A strong memory after the Sullivan show was the Beatles' first U.S. tour.  I was lucky enough to attend the show in Chicago, thanks to a friend whose father got tickets and drove us.  Did I see or hear the Beatles then?  No!  Our seats were on a flat floor, so all the girls stood up throughout the concert.  And SCREAMED!!  I heard no songs, just a lot of teenaged girls screaming.  And, boy, was it contagious!  And thrilling!

 I did see the Beatles close up the next year, though.  In 1965 I went to the World's Fair in New York.  I was standing near a chain link fence when girls suddenly started streaming over.  In a minute, I was pressed up to the fence, thousands of girls behind me, screaming, with the actual BEATLES walking, single file, on the other side of the fence.  They got out of a black Wells Fargo truck and walked into Shea Stadium, for that night's concert.  Pretty exhilarating!  And after they left, every girl was crying and saying, "He(whichever was our favorite)  looked right at me!"  The highlight of the World's Fair, for me.

 Oh, to have had a cell phone--or even a camera--then!