Beatles For Sale
2024 is coming to a close. The other evening I was looking back over the decades ending in the number four and realized that several of those decades were life changing for me. Another chapter in my haphazardly written autobiography.
1964 - In August my parents, my 14 y/o sister and I, a strapping youth of 17, moved from Los Alamos, NM to Kano the capital of Northern Nigeria. I was going to miss my senior year of high school and all the activities that year would bring. The following 12 months were one of the most amazing years I ever experienced.
Today is 4 December the 60th anniversary of the release the The Beatles' album Beatles for Sale on EMI's Parlophone label. Most likely my favorite Beatles album.
It was released just before the Christmas holiday. With large British population in Nigeria at the time there were many students returning home from the UK with lots of The Beatles' new album in their suitcases.
My parents and a number of other American educators were employed at the Kano Teachers Training College at the time. Most of those teachers lived in the American "compound". Soon after we moved in to our new California ranch style house I met the three young sisters living next door. One I got to know very well. Her older sister had become friends with a British boy earlier in the year who was returning home for the holidays. With him was Beatles for Sale.
The Kano County Club had a "children only evening". The music selection and dance floor was ours. The only record played was... Yup. Later in the week there was a party at someone's house while the parents were out. For Sale was all we heard in the darken house until someone turned on a light and "Turn off the bloody light" was yelled out. The light was extinguished and the snogging continued. A beautiful ending to 1964. Could not have had a better Senior year.
#Autobiography #Kano Nigeria #Beatles For Sale #Senior Year #Snogging
