Procrastination (But I Digress)

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

My alarm clock is set to the news, so I am woken in the morning either to a really annoying ad or to a headline of a news story.  This morning I was awoken to "It was 35 years ago today..."  The commentator paused and in my head I filled in Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play.  Adam was a little slow getting out of bed, so I rummaged around and I found that CD and played it while driving him to school.  He had never heard it and has had little exposure to the Beatles--on oversight in his education that I will soon alleviate.  Then I drove Melody to work and found that she also did not have a full grasp of the Beatles--she had never heard Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  She said that Gordon has a disc of the Beatles music videos, but that she hadn't seen it.  I felt it was my civic duty to inform her that the Beatles pre-date music videos, so they made movies in which they just ran all over London singing their songs. 
 
Then I picked Megan up from the airport.  I was pretty lucky, because they didn't start a practice this morning of not allowing Aunts to pick up their 12 year old nieces at the gate.  It wasn't easy to find Spirit airlines, but once I did it was pretty easy to get to Megan (although I was behind a baby and toddler with only one parent and an oversized stroller AND two elderly people on the verge of having a heartattack with two dogs AND a very impatient gangster boy/man (is 20 or 21 year old dressed in baggy, messy clothes a boy or a man) with about 16 pockets full of metal that had to be put into the box in line at security).  Megan's gate was right at the beginning, but they had already started coming off the plane so I got there just in time.  About five minutes later, Megan came off the plane.  She had thrown up on the plane and was carrying her shirt in a blue bag.  Another passenger had given her a shirt.  I tried to find out who, but Megan couldn't remember what she looked like.  She pointed out someone she thought was the person, but they wouldn't make eye contact so they get to be an anonymous good samaritian.  (That word is not in my dictionary, but I digress so much more than I already have.)
 
You guessed it.  Megan had never heard Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  She only knew two Beatles songs:  Yellow Submarine and Hard Days Night.  She got to listen to the whole CD (it was a long drive home from the Airport).  Then when we got home, Marisa booted up her computer (completely unrelated to and in total ignorance of my Sergeant Pepper craze) and clicked (I am not kidding) "Songs Kathy Would Like" and they were all Beatles songs.  While we waited for Adam to get home, Megan was treated to all the classic and wonderful Beatles songs that I know and love.  Then we all went back to my office to have lunch with Melody.  Marisa drove, but I wouldn't let her listen to music while she was driving, so Marisa missed getting to hear me sing Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the top of my lungs.  Too bad--it's a really good song.
 
P.S.  Thirty-Five years ago Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren landed on the moon--the news story that started my day.  They said that Neil Armstrong was the greatest pilot in the world at the time and that Buzz Aldren was a walking computer, he was so smart.  The computer went down right before they were going to land on the moon and they only had 10 seconds of fuel left when they touched down.  35 years ago today.

6 Comments:

  • At July 21, 2004 at 4:46 AM, Blogger EZ Travel said…

    At least Megan knew a couple of Beatles songs. Sheesh, these kids today.

    Related to the "landing on the moon" story, I heard a piece on NPR yesterday about the women that trained to be astronauts at the same time and passed all the same tests as the men, but were then told that they would not be allowed to become astronauts.
    http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1301400

     
  • At July 21, 2004 at 5:36 AM, Blogger paulette said…

    And you all thought the Beatles were timeless. I bet they all know who Frank Sinatra is.

     
  • At July 21, 2004 at 6:46 AM, Blogger EZ Travel said…

    I will take that bet. They may have heard the name (just as they had heard of the Beatles) but there is no way they could pick him out of a crowd.

     
  • At July 21, 2004 at 9:15 AM, Blogger Gretchen said…

    Wow, doesn't Mel sound like the typical teenager. I remember a friend coming over one time in my teens and asking me to put some Elvis on, he was appalled that we didn't have any Elvis in the house. But qwuite frankly when Megan told me they were listening to Lonely Hearts Club Band, I thought of the Bee Gees, I don't ever think I've heard the Beatles version.

     
  • At July 21, 2004 at 11:08 AM, Blogger KathrynVH said…

    The Bee Gees version is the one I was more familiar with also. Maybe when the Beatles start selling records on TV (Like Old Blue Eyes), more kids will know them too.

     
  • At July 21, 2004 at 12:51 PM, Blogger EZ Travel said…

    The Beatles version is 100 times better than the BeeGee's.

     

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