October 14, 1964
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Do you know about the Beatles? You have to have heard their song “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” I mean, everybody has heard that song. Everybody!! Aunt Love holds her ears if she hears it on my little radio and Leigh, Dad’s girlfriend, says they can’t hold a candle to Elvis. But I sort of like them. Even if they are from England and have floppy long hair. You have to admit the song is sort of catchy.
Our 4-H Club got into some trouble because of that song. You see, we have this talent show every year and all the clubs can enter a small group act and a big club act. It’s a big thing for the elementary schools. The principals and teachers arrange the acts and they make the kids practice every day. It’s sort of a school pride thing and competition. But when you get to high school, the 4-H Club doesn’t have all that support and we’re pretty much on our own. But we did come up with a club act and sang some show tunes. Not great, but we did it.
That wasn’t why we got into trouble. It was the other act. Four of the boys in our club decided to pretend to be the Beatles and lip sync “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” They got wigs somewhere. Don’t ask me where! I have no idea. Then they got some drums for the guy who was Ringo and guitars for the others. It was all in fun and like no act you’ve ever seen at a Holly County 4-H Talent Show. The girls in the club decided to do our part to make it like a real Beatles’ performance. So we did a little screaming. You know like the fans do for the Beatles. As far as I know, none of us actually fainted. We were just having fun, but Miss Lester, the principal at one of the elementary schools, was not happy. Of course, Miss Lester is never happy. If she’s ever smiled, there were no witnesses. Some grown-ups don’t want kids to have any fun.
Dad gave me a talking to, but I don’t think he was real mad or anything. He didn’t make me stop listening to my radio even though he’s not crazy about the Beatles. He says he doesn’t think kids should be acting like four guys from England are some kind of heroes when all they’re doing is singing some silly songs. He says the best hero to have is Jesus and I have to agree with that.