I always enjoyed watching the Beatle’s on TV, listening to their music on the radio, and keeping up with news of them via entertainment news.  One year I gave each of my teenaged children a record (those old 45’s) “And So This Is Christmas” for Christmas.  I thought the message in John Lennon’s song was important and chose this subliminal way to pass on the message to them.

A recent trip to Liverpool, England, was interesting and included Beatle factoids.  Our tour guide was a woman by the name of Marie who had tutored Ringo (otherwise known as Richie) in reading.  Given her age they must have been classmates as she didn’t seem to be much older.  He’d missed a lot of school due to illness and needed some help.  Marie passed on some interesting stories about Ringo and Paul whose families still live in the Liverpool area.  Paul McCartney purchased and renovated his old school, the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys”  which has now been turned into a respected arts, film, and music school  known as the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA)  which provides higher education programs across the spectrum of the performing arts . The tour also included a walk through the streets Liverpool and on to Mathew Street which is also the home of the Cavern Club where the Beatles got their start; attractions including a statue of John Lennon, a Beatles store, and several pubs formerly frequented by The Beatles.  A wall in Mathew Street is adorned by a sculpture by Arthur Dooley entitled "Four Lads Who Shook the World", as well as a statue of Eleanor Rigby and a plaque bearing the words to that song.  And, as we walked around the Liverpool waterfront we saw the Yellow Submarine tied up to a pier.  It didn’t look like they were giving tours of it that evening. 

One of those “I should’ve gone with moments” was the opportunity to go see a show at the Cavern Club with a group from our tour – I decided to go on a solo walk around the area instead, and am now sure what I should have done was go to the show.  Oh well, the things I did do while in Liverpool like visiting the Walker Art Gallery, going into the bustling Liverpool Train Station to use an ATM, walking through the streets and the shopping malls, as well as eating at Jamie’s (Jamie Oliver) Italian Restaurant are fond memories indeed.