Love, Love (The Beatles) Me Do

I first fell under the spell of The Beatles when I was only four. I was watching A Hard Day's Night with my mom and I wanted nothing more than to be one of those screaming schoolgirls chasing the band around town. While I wasn't pining over boys yet, I remember desperately wanting one of The Beatles to be my older brother (mostly George). Then I heard the news... The Beatles had already been disbanded for more than two decades! At my age, the news was a lot like finding out (spoiler alert, kids, sorry!) Santa didn't exist-but worse. This was my first bout with heartache and possibly my most painful. Beatlemania was "over." I needed a little time to let things sink in, but I eventually perked up (family records show that I was A-Okay by the following day). I would captain my own Beatles ship with my then one-and-a-half-year-old sister as my crewmate. Even then she (involuntarily) supported my weird ideas. Together we would "sail" to the United Kingdom to "...see The Beatles, Momma! To see GeeeOOOORGE! Beep Beep'm Beep Beep. Yeah!!" ("Drive My Car" was a favorite.) All of this was videotaped by my mom. My sister and I would sit in our "ship" (an empty hamper), facing my parents' record player, listening to Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's and other Beatles albums on our way to see the band. (Once my dad snuck his Ratt album in the mix, which didn't go over well.) Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to rock the ship, because my sister would start hitting me, which was fine with me, but not with my mom. So our vessel wasn't moving, but it sailed on in our imaginations until my sister would jump ship for a nap.