Changes and the Beatles by: Dan Lubben 8/15/2007
Life was pretty routine for this fourteen year old. I was busy building a model airplane. I'm getting glue everywhere but where it needs to be, but having fun all the same. While doing this I was also listening to my favorite radio station KIMN. There was a new contest going on and everybody was quite excited about it. 88 lucky winners were going to attend The Beatles concert in St. Louis later that year. The catch was that you had to call in and identify a Beatles song when the station had their hourly giveaway. This could be a tough task because you usually didn't recognize the song because it was either played super fast, slow, or backwards. The contest was already about half way through, and all I could get was a busy signal when I called. Then the D.J announced, "Call in and guess this song and you'll be a winner". This song was played backwards, but I recognized it immediately. I grabbed the phone off the wall, and dialed as fast as I could. I figured that by the time I got through that I'd hear that all too familiar busy signal. Then to my surprise the phone started ringing on the other end, which made me think I must have dialed the wrong number. Next thing I heard was the D.J saying "can you guess that tune"? I was in shock, I can barely remember what the song was, but I blurted out "Do You Want to Know a Secret"? "You're a winner" he replied. Total shock is what I felt after that. I couldn't win at anything, and now I'm going to see The Beatles. My next task was to convince my folks that a fourteen year old would be safe on a trip like that. The radio station helped out by having escorts who would keep us in line, but I wanted my friends to join me. We set up what seemed to be a 24 hour a day vigil to get them in. But it seems my old friend the busy signal greeted us each time we called. Soon the contest was over and I realized I would have to go it alone. I still felt that the whole thing had to be a dream, that I would wake up and still be building model airplanes. Then the official letter came announcing the mandatory meeting for the winners. My dad and I showed up at a church that was full of excited kids, and nervous parents. The itinerary was discussed, and papers signed, and the next thing was waiting for August 21. I 'm sure I didn't sleep much the night before, but the time I was waiting for had finally arrived. Me, my dad, and my best friends Jim and Boyd were off to Stapleton Airport where there was a four engine turboprop awaiting the winners. It was still dark and a little cold, I said my goodbyes and as I headed toward the plane I heard my dad mumble "lucky stiff". Motors weren't needed to get this plane in the air. The excitement of everybody on the plane could have put us into outer space. I was excited for my own reasons, because not only did I get to see The Beatles, but I also got my first plane ride. Sure beats building model airplanes. It seemed like we were only in the air for 15 minutes, and then we landed. Getting off the plane I noticed that it was raining, but nothing could ruin this trip. .The smell of the jet fuel and the diesel fuel from the tour bus was everywhere. We rambled onto the tour buses where we were to be treated to the sights of St Louis. We were shown the Budweiser Brewery and a few other sites, but the one thing that stuck in my mind was the Gateway Arch that was finished the year before. The bus finally made it to Busch Stadium, which was also built the year before. We made our way into the stadium, getting soaked in the process. I stopped to pick up a program which I had to stick in my shirt to keep from getting wet. We were in our seats soon after and were ready for the show. I was taking it all in at this point. I noticed most of the fans were dressed in the latest fashion. Girls had their hair in bouffonts with miniskirts and knee high go-go boots, guys with their Beatle haircuts, bell bottom cord pants with the latest mod paisley shirts, and of course the latest hats. I was making my fashion statement too, the "Leave it to Beaver" look, a striped T- shirt with blue jeans. Didn't matter though this whole event was much more than a fashion show. All of a sudden the announcer let out with a "Here they are The Beatles". My hearing will never be the same. The crowd jumped to their feet, girls were screaming at the top of their lungs. The Beatles came out of the dugout and worked their way through the security guards, waving all the time, till they got to the second base stage that was set up for them. Then they played their first song. I strained to figure out what it was. Was it "Ticket to Ride", or "I Saw Her Standing There"?. I wanted to tell the girl behind me to cool it, but it was futile. Even though you couldn't hear the music the emotion carried everyone over. Everybody was into the event. The one thing I did hear was when Paul acknowledged our group for being the fans that came the longest distance for the show. That really had the girls screaming in our section. The show ended a little earlier than expected due to the fact The Beatles did a show earlier in the day. We were off to the airport a short time later. I couldn't tell if it was from my hearing loss or more than likely total fatigue for all of us, but the plane trip home was very quiet. Everybody was sleeping or just reminiscing the day. We landed at 2 in the morning the next day, and were dragging ourselves off the plane to our anxious, but tired waiting parents. After that I slept for 12 hours. When I woke up I still wondered if it was a dream. Then I dug my ticket stub out of my pocket and my rain soaked program out of my drawer. The realization of what had happened the day before wasn't my imagination. With that I went back to building model airplanes. It took years, actually decades to put everything together that had happened. Since then I had gone to many concerts that as far as performance was concerned, were actually better. The Beatles finished touring 10 days after the show I attended. They would never do another live concert. Out of the thousands of concerts the Beatles did, the one I attended was the one that made their mind up to quit touring. Doing two shows that day and fear of electrocution from the rain made John Lennon decide he had enough. I felt sad at first to think the event that I was at ended what was a remarkable phenomenon. Not long after they quit touring the Beatles brought out a new song "Strawberry Fields Forever". At first I thought it was quite strange, but it quickly grew on me. Then later the lads came out with their greatest album "Sgt. Pepper". These were done in a way that couldn't be played on stage. If they had still been doing concerts they would have been obliged to make songs that could be played by the four of them. In hindsight I think that would have made them just another rock group instead of the innovators that they were. Sometimes we look at change negatively, not realizing that it not only ends a phase, but also begins another. There are many changes happening today, some good some not so good. We can realize some right away, while others may take decades to figure out. The way we view those changes can influence not only ourselves, but those around us, maybe even the world. Keep on the lookout for those changes. Dan Lubben
