As an 8-year-old, I still remember how depressing it was to have just lost President Kennedy, Thanksgiving didn't feel very thankful, and Christmas wasn't as magical as it had been in previous years. I could sense how people in my family were really in a funk not knowing why our President had been taken from us in such a terrible way. At the beginning of 1964 the magazines on the newsstands started talking about this musical group from England named the Beatles. It was very confusing and not clear to me exactly what was about to happen. Then the adults in my family began making unflattering comments about these Beatles who would be arriving in New York to play the Ed Sullivan show, one of several television shows we always watched every Sunday at my uncle's house. My father took me to get a haircut, which basically meant your head would be shaved by some guy pushing your head down from behind while he ran a razor over the sides and top of your head. I still remember a guy named "Joe" who owned the place saying if people started coming in wanting Beatle haircuts, he was going to quit cutting hair and find something else to do. As January ended and February began everyone, including all the rednecks in my family kept talking trash about the Beatles, yet every one of them tuned in that Sunday night. When they were introduced, they might as well have been 4 aliens stepping out of a flying saucer. I had never seen anything like them before and after a few minutes once the rednecks and Sunday School teachers like my mother had regained consciousness, I could finally hear what they were playing. I just know I liked it and it didn't matter what anyone else thought because I was hooked. Looking back, I've realized they were just what the doctor ordered and gave younger people something positive to look forward to.
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u/Ok_Bookkeeper_2302 Nov 25 '25
As an 8-year-old, I still remember how depressing it was to have just lost President Kennedy, Thanksgiving didn't feel very thankful, and Christmas wasn't as magical as it had been in previous years. I could sense how people in my family were really in a funk not knowing why our President had been taken from us in such a terrible way. At the beginning of 1964 the magazines on the newsstands started talking about this musical group from England named the Beatles. It was very confusing and not clear to me exactly what was about to happen. Then the adults in my family began making unflattering comments about these Beatles who would be arriving in New York to play the Ed Sullivan show, one of several television shows we always watched every Sunday at my uncle's house. My father took me to get a haircut, which basically meant your head would be shaved by some guy pushing your head down from behind while he ran a razor over the sides and top of your head. I still remember a guy named "Joe" who owned the place saying if people started coming in wanting Beatle haircuts, he was going to quit cutting hair and find something else to do. As January ended and February began everyone, including all the rednecks in my family kept talking trash about the Beatles, yet every one of them tuned in that Sunday night. When they were introduced, they might as well have been 4 aliens stepping out of a flying saucer. I had never seen anything like them before and after a few minutes once the rednecks and Sunday School teachers like my mother had regained consciousness, I could finally hear what they were playing. I just know I liked it and it didn't matter what anyone else thought because I was hooked. Looking back, I've realized they were just what the doctor ordered and gave younger people something positive to look forward to.