Paul McCartney is in town

and I have not seen him. I do not expect to see him. I most certainly have not bought a ticket to go to his concert. If I was given one I would pass it on to someone who would appreciate it much more than I would.

His presence here brings back memories of another tour he made, a tour made when "the Beatles" were at the height of their popularity. It seems such a long time ago now.

I was in high school at the time, one of the more than one I attended. This one was an all girls school. I was a "new kid" again. I felt lost and lonely in the big city school. I had a class teacher who made it quite clear she did not want me there which made me feel even more unhappy.

There were a lot of things I didn't understand and a lot of things I didn't know. One of those things was who these "Beatles" were. Out in the country there must have been other students who knew but they did not talk about it at school. Their morning music was more likely Beethoven or Bach or Berlioz. Their fathers would have the radio on a classical music station while they milked the cows - for the cows. Cows actually seem to like classical music. 

So there I was in a class of fifty-three girls all of whom seemed to be talking about these Beatles. They all seemed to have their own Beatle. Even the girls from the strict religious sect who wore their long hair in plaits and headbands and did not eat with anyone else seemed to know about these Beatles.

I kept my mouth shut for a while. I felt even more ignorant and foolish as well as miserable. I kept my head down and tried to work. In front of everyone else the class teacher, who was also the English teacher, actually threw my homework back at me and told me my writing was "too untidy to read". She told me I should go back to Grade One and learn to write. It reduced me to tears although I tried not to show it.  There was a shocked silence in the classroom but I was sure the other girls were on her side, not mine.

I was wrong. They were on my side. Two of them asked me to sit with them at lunch time.  They were talking about these Beatles. Which one did I like the most they wanted to know. I remember taking a deep breath and admitting I didn't know anything about them. I told them about the cows and the classical music. They were as puzzled by that as I was by the Beatles. 

The Beatles arrived. The school kept a close watch on everyone. Nobody was going to be allowed to skive off school to try and see them arrive. Our Latin teacher, a woman near retirement age, brought an alarm clock into class and set it to the time they were supposed to be landing at the airport. It was enough.

Later a lot of the girls joined the crowd outside the hotel the Beatles were supposedly staying in. I caught the bus and did my homework. Crowds suited me no more then they do now. Some of them went to the concert. They were the envy of the rest of the school. Most of the girls of course could not afford to go even in the unlikely event of parental permission.

It was a little later in the term when the girls were whispering among themselves and looking at me. I wondered what I had done wrong now. They had been nice to me lately. I still wasn't happy there but it was mostly due to the class teacher.  

I had not done anything wrong. What the girls had done was take up a collection between them. They had bought me a ticket to see the Beatles film they were all, apart from the girls from the religious sect, going to see. They had organised it with the warden of the hostel I was staying in to have one the parents pick me up and return me to her care. All of it had been done without telling me anything. 

We went to the film. I didn't actually like it very much but I pretended I liked it as much as they did. The film didn't matter, what mattered was that the girls had cared enough to include me. 

If I had that spare ticket I would want to give it to the girl who got up and said, "Cat, we want you to come too. Here's the ticket."

I would like a block of tickets to give them - and hope they still liked "the Beatles".