“Grab your coat, grab your hat, catch the bus in seconds flat.”
When I was very small, my dad used to say this to my sister and I every morning as we got ready to go to daycare. One of my earlier memories, it was probably the first instance of the Beatles influencing my life, although I didn’t know it at the time.
Flash forward about ten years to our living room, me staying up late watching television with my dad. An old black and white movie about a British rock band from the 60’s was on PBS.
“What is this?” I asked my dad, mildly impatient. I vaguely recall wanting him to switch to Nick at Nite or something.
“A Hard Day’s Night,” he said, “a Beatles movie. Let’s watch it.” And so we did. Of course I had heard of the Beatles, but I never really paid much attention to them before. I realized that I already knew all the songs from the radio or ballgames or wherever it is that we hear songs that we don’t really pay attention to, and that I liked them. And even though I didn’t get all of the jokes, something about the four lads from Liverpool absolutely transfixed me. Thus was the beginning of my obsession with the Beatles.
Later that year, the Beatles Anthology aired on ABC and I watched every minute of it, along with my father. On the second night, they covered Sgt Pepper’s and the song “A Day in the Life.” The song moved to the middle part and I heard the lines “Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Found my way upstairs and had a cup, and looking up, I noticed I was late,” and then suddenly, “Found my coat and grabbed my hat… made the bus in seconds flat.”
I looked at my dad. “You took that from the Beatles?!” He gave me a little smile before simply saying, “Yep.”
As I sit today re-watching the anthology on DVD while minimizing some logic circuits for class, I once again find myself watching the bit about “A Day in the Life” and once again flashing back to being a small child getting ready for school. It’s funny what will trigger a memory or five.