The Beatles Are Here! by Penelope Rowlands

Author:Penelope Rowlands
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2014-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

Tom Long, fan

MY MEMORY OF the Beatles’ splash was at St. James elementary school in Syracuse, New York. A classmate, Leon Shattel, brought in his older sister’s records to play in our fourth-grade classroom.

St. James was staffed by Franciscan nuns who were generally older, dour women who weren’t afraid to practice corporal punishment on students at any given moment. I was in my fifth year of parochial education by now and you had better have figured out what not to do to avoid being beat with a hardwood pointer.

Not all of the penguins were old. I recall a younger recruit that year who allowed these Beatles records, 45-rpm singles, to be played in class. The teacher would sing along almost hypnotically, as if an out of body experience was taking place.

This was all very interesting to observe. The message was mixed, at best. A nun, who was undoubtedly living a very austere existence dictated by older, possibly sadistic nuns, singing along to “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

I later made a career in rock and roll, as a soundman and roadie. I don’t want to say that this moment set me on that path, but it could have been when that kind of music entered my life. Whatever it was, I filed it under one of my father’s many classic quotes: “Life is Mad magazine.”

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