Will You Still Need Me When I’m 64?
I couldn’t ask for more
I had just turned seven when the song “When I’m 64” appeared on the Beatles’ classic album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
I’ve been a die-hard Beatles fan since the four lovable mop tops burst across our TV screens that magical Sunday evening in February of 1964. My son’s name, Zak, is a nod to Ringo’s son.
When my father came home from work one evening, he surprised me with the Sgt. Pepper album. I eagerly ripped the cellophane off the album and raced to the Westinghouse Hi-Fi stereo my parents had saved up for that past Christmas.
After carefully lowering the needle onto the record, I lay on the floor, looking at the album, seeing how our mop tops now had mustaches, and reading the lyrics (the first with lyrics included!). I found myself mesmerized by the new sounds bouncing off the wood-paneled walls of our TV room.
My parents installed the lime green shag carpet the following year.
I couldn’t possibly imagine what being 64 would be like. My parents were 34 and 35, and I thought THEY were old. My grandparents were all in their mid-60s and probably fought off dinosaurs in their youth as they walked to school uphill both ways.