Flossie and the Beatles

Hi neighbors. February is more than half over already! How are you doing with those New Year's resolutions? I didn't make many and most of them have been shelved for other, more pressing demands.

Flossie was by the other day and said she was glad she hadn't made any. Flossie doesn't like pressure and tries to never put any on herself. She declares that there is no end to "impossible missions," deadlines and things that need to be done immediately. She sees no reason to self-impose more rules and schedules than are already built in place by life itself.

To Flossie, setting up appointments, starting an exercise regiment, or simply saying she will be some place at a specific time; is paramount to taking arsenic. As she explains, "It may take a while to kill you, but if you take just a little bit every day, you're asking for trouble. I won't do anything to hasten my own demise -- particularly anything I don't want to do in the first place."

But, as we all know, that is Flossie today. Tomorrow may be another story and she will start exercising, eating right and taking care of herself. Flossie is the original "flower child" of the '60s, and any duty, responsibility or promise is rather like enlisting in the military. She is determined to remain a free spirit, and retirement has helped her return to her teenage roots.

She came over to tell me about the Beatles' 50th anniversary television special that was held in the old Ed Sullivan Studio (now where the David Letterman show is taped) and brought all of her Beatles records and memorabilia with her.

Did you know there were Beatles lunch boxes? Beatles trading cards, magazines, wigs and glasses? Flossie had them all! If there was a product for each Beatle, she felt she had to have all four.

So, we watched the taped television special (which was very good, by the way) then made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pigged out on chips and dip and drank two cups each of green tea.

Swept away by a sense of nostalgia, we put on all the Beatles records, dug out our old love beads and plastic, flowered necklaces, searched for any face we could recognize on the "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover, and danced.

Yep, Woodstock had nothing on us two old hippies, except we had no green smog blocking our breathing.

Yep, we were ready to change the world, all over again, save the seal pups and shout "we are the walrus."

After a couple of dances< we decided to take a break and prop our feet up.

"You know Flossie, we had high hopes back then to make things right in the world. We were going to hug the trees, clean up the ocean, save the whales and go to the moon. What do you think changed us?"

"Our parents kicked us out and told us to get a job. We had to think more about getting to work each day and less about the journeys of the Starship Enterprise. You can't live in the world and not become part of the world. All of us free thinkers had to stop thinking and start doing what we were told to do."

"You don't think the two can be one? Working folks with kids and mortgages can't change the world? Is it because we get too involved with life? What's wrong with the world, Flossie?"

"Too many rules, my friend, too many rules and too little love. Listen to ole John tell it like it is."

We dozed off in our respective recliners to the familiar words of "All You Need Is Love," followed by "Revolution."

Until the next time, friends -- peace.