Sgt. Pepper and pot, the joys of 1967

Since this is Sgt. Pepper day, and no one wants my essay about the Summer of Love, I'm posting here a cut down excerpt about the album. Surely I enjoyed the ultimate 1967 experience - Pepper and pot simultaneously, both for the first time.

The first week of June, a seismic event - the Beatles released an album. My neighbour, Brent, asked if I wanted to come listen to his brand-new copy. Brent was 18. His parents were out.

He showed me the album – a far-out cover and such a strange title, the Beatles as a “lonely hearts club band,” whatever that was. The Beatles were many things, but I was pretty sure lonely was not one of them. Brent got something out of a tin. “I have a treat for us,” he said, holding a scrawny cigarette. “It’s pot.”

Brent put the record on the record player and lit the little cigarette. I’d never taken anything into my lungs except air. It made me cough to inhale the hot bitter smoke.     

We heard incredible music, one song sort of linked to the next, a kind of circus show. My head grew light, my body fizzing, heart hammering. The last track on side two was like nothing I’d ever heard, a whole orchestra, it sounded like, every instrument gradually climbing up, up, straining ever higher. As I sat in Brent’s father’s La-Z-boy chair, eyes closed, caught in that soaring crescendo, I was a flower, bursting through the hard dark soil into the sun.

At the end, a long quivering chord held forever, and I, hanging onto the arms of the chair to keep from flying away, my petals still glowing in the light.

As I floated home, I thought, well, pot’s fun, and that’s a really great record. But it’s the Beatles, that’s what they do. In six months, they’ll come out with something even better.

I really thought that. Just another brilliant album. Many more to come.

Sigh.

Here's a brilliant Simpson's episode for your viewing pleasure. Sometimes they can do no wrong. And after all these years, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo3fT0xPeHs

Watched a PBS documentary on aging. Though there's nothing you don't know, here as a reminder are some of the things they said help you age better, according to studies they've done on the island of Okinawa, for example, where people routinely live to be over a hundred healthy in mind and body:
Eat less meat - there are enzymes in meat that contribute to aging - and more colourful fruits and vegetables, especially purple ones.
Keep fit: dance and walk.
Socialize.
Learn something new.
Eat nuts. People who eat nuts have 50% less chance of a heart attack. Or something like that.

Okay. That's your wisdom for today.

Tonight's the rehearsal for So True. Today's thrill - my new bike. After much research, several trips to Canadian Tire and other shops, I bought a Norco at my local bike shop. Finally, I have a stepthrough- also called a girl's - bike with high handlebars. Thrilling. She is turquoise blue and I've called her Marilyn, because she's old-fashioned and big and show-offy and gorgeous.

I HAVE REGISTERED HER WITH THE POLICE and she has a big fat lock.  So if you're planning to come by and steal her, think again.