Flashback : 1964

Emerging from my usual winter grumpslump, I want to give you whippersnappers a taste of what you missed by not being around in the sixties.

On this day 43 years ago, a lovely blizzard moved up the east coast. Schoolchildren stayed home and listened to the radio. Before the snow hit New York, the Beatles arrived at JFK, and Cousin Brucie on WABC talked about it all day long. "It's ten Beatle minutes after the hour and outside it's thirty-two Beatle degrees." They were driven to the Plaza in a Wells Fargo truck (I used to know the number) and the next day they took the train to Washington D.C. for a concert, then back to New York for the Ed Sullivan Show Sunday night.

Seven months later, I went to their concert at the Baltimore Civic Center. A modestly-sized venue, it held about 3500 people. You could see them; and hear them, if faintly. Tickets cost three dollars. My ticket stub is framed, and hangs on my kitchen wall.

Today I wore the pins pictured above, on my scrub top. One co-worker recognized them. The remainder of the folks I work with are illiterate Philistines. Being born after Lennon died is no excuse.