"The Beatles! Let's Bring Them On."

The Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show, February 9, 1964

"Now yesterday and today our theater's been jammed with newspapermen and hundreds of photographers from all over the nation, and these veterans agreed with me that this city never has witnessed the excitement stirred by these youngsters from Liverpool who call themselves The Beatles. Now tonight, you're gonna twice be entertained by them. Right now, and again in the second half of our show. Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles! Let's bring them on."---Ed Sullivan

In 1964 I was teaching science and math at Orange Junior High School in Hillsborough, NC.  All day that Friday the little girls in my 8th grade science class were chattering about "the beatles".  I had no idea what they were talking about---thought it was about insects.  When I asked they told me about this group that was going to be on the Ed Sullivan Show on that next Sunday night.  I told them I would watch.  I admit I was pretty much hooked from the beginning.  I'm still a loyal fan fifty years later.  I would love to touch base with some of those little students of mine who would now be about 62 or 63 years old.  Egads!!!!

Yes little eighth grade girls, you were right.  Great group.  And they have stood the test of time.

November 22, 1963: A Day Remembered

President Kennedy (Photo credit by NASA.).

I'm sure that all who were around on November 22, 1963, and were old enough, will remember exactly where they were when they heard the awful news that our young president had been killed.

My husband and I were living in Hillsborough, NC with our 8 month old son, Michael, and I was teaching science and math at Orange Junior High School which was directly across from our house, and my husband was in graduate school at Duke.

 I had an accelerated group of eighth graders in class that afternoon when a student knocked on the door of my classroom.  She told me the principal said to tell everyone the President had been killed.  For just a second or two, I thought President? What President?   Then it dawned on me that she was talking about President Kennedy.  I went back into the classroom and told my eighth grade students.

School was dismissed, and I hurried home to my young baby, and soon my husband returned.  It seems that we did nothing but watch television for days during the coverage of the assassination--except we were at church when Oswald was killed.  But soon reruns of that were all over the newscasts. 

It was a sad time, and I have often wondered how different our country might be if Kennedy had lived.