Sgt. Pepper's Summer

Summers in Vancouver are lovely. Last year, it was on a Tuesday.

Just kidding.

They really are lovely, but they do last longer than one day. The one in 1967 seemed to be endless. The sun was merciless. It must have been over 85°F during the day, for weeks straight. The beaches were crowded, and a lot of us lived on the hot dogs sold by the vendors there. The sounds of "folk/rock" permeated the air. The Association's "Windy," Donovan's "Sunny Goodge Street," and "Mellow Yellow."

What the heck is an "electrical banana," anyway; and do I really want to know?

It almost seemed as if we were drowsing in the glowing yellow days...waiting...we moved from sunbeam to sunbeam, from the beach to the mountain, from Fourth Avenue, across the Burrard Street Bridge to downtown, and back before sundown to watch it set into the Georgia Strait. Patchouli wafted on the breeze.

We didn't know that we were waiting, at least, I didn't. Until the day I walked into the Fourth Avenue record shop, and the guy behind the counter said, "Hey! Wanna hear something new?" Of course I did! He spun the disk, and my point of view changed forever. What was it? "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Strange as it may sound, there were a lot of us out there who had no further need of recreational drugs--The Beatles had done it for us. Why bother doing something that contained an element of risk, when listening to a record was not illegal at all? They took that buzz and turned it into sound.

Often imitated, spoofed and parodied. Never duplicated.

My son gave me a copy of it on CD for Mothers' Day. I finally managed to thank him. I told him he not only gave me some terrific music, but he gave me back that endless summer.