This one is for Tim O'Brien.

Yesterday while driving my daughter to school, I was listening to my Beatles playlist on my i-pod in the car. I need to have my Beatles/John Lennon fix about once a week, and my mind gets to wandering. I was thinking of how cool would it be if Lennon were around to tweak Bush like he did Nixon, then I thought of the time my father met the Beatles during the time he was a missionary in 1963.

My dad was an LDS missionary in northern England from 1963 to 1965, and was in Liverpool in 1963. He spent time all over northern England and was in Liverpool, Manchester, and Coln- Lancashire (sp?). He went back often while in the air force many times in the years after his mission.

As my father felt the effects of Multiple Sclerosis he had to quit the air force. I used to hang out with him in our living room and listen to him tell me stories as he sat in his recliner. This was therapeutic for both of us.

The story goes-

He and his missionary companion met a young couple who knew the Beatles, and invited him to go and see the Beatles play a small show in Liverpool. It was in a small club, and after the show this young couple took my dad and introduced him to the Beatles!! My dad thought they looked "scruffy", but he loved the music they played. They asked him if he wanted their autographs, but he said no because he thought they wouldn't amount to much.

You need to understand that my dad grew up listening to the Elverly Brothers, and had a "crew-cut" haircut.

A couple of years after he came home, he bought St.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on LP, and I now have that record.

I play it when I miss him.