I’ll Tell You Somethin…
“…I think you’ll understand.”
Last Friday I really pulled a Bill Buckner move. I forgot it was 61 years ago that the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first of three straight Sunday nights. Those shows were watched by 73 million people, a record at the time. I was a kid and watched all three shows with my brothers and sisters. One of the few times we all sat together without a rumble breaking out.
I’d forgotten that night until I read a story about it by Mike Barnicle’s son Tim. Tim’s 33, so he sure as hell wasn’t around back then. But he said something that I have always felt. That the reason that night was so important to America, and the reason I’m bringing it up now, was that we were reeling and mourning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy a few months earlier. I always felt it was the Beatles and Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali, who won the heavyweight title later in February that year, that pulled us out of the ditch.
We’re reeling again now and maybe it will take somebody like the Fab Four or the Champ to pull us outta this one. But in the meantime, read Tim’s story and listen to some Beatles tunes and “know you should be glad.”
Keep your dukes up.
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