by Dan Hiland

Created on: September 15, 2009

Somewhere back there in the early 60's came my first glimmer of Beatles awareness .

It was during some free time in a grade school class. A girl was writing the names of well-known songs on the blackboard, and when the subject of the Beatles arose, several kids rattled off their songs, "Please, Mr. Postman" being the only one I remember her putting on the board.

When I asked who the Beatles were, I was treated as though I'd been in a cave somewhere. But I was serious. I truly didn't know who they were.

Being 10 in 1964, my attention was divided between various the fads that came and went like clockwork.

There were the Duncan yo-yo artists that would descend on our school and captivate the masses with their transparent orange, green, red, and blue yo-yos, doing things with them that we could never hope to accomplish.

I wanted them just because of the colors, but when I got an imitation copy later, I stopped using it after about ten minutes. Not only could I not "walk the dog" with one, but the frigging string would knot up and tangle.

Finally frustrated with the whole business, I found that my version of the "Around the World" trick was the best release for frustrations. I would let the yo-yo go all the way to the end of the string, then whip it round and round and at some point either the string would snap or I'd just release it into the air. Watching it soar off through the sky- now there was a trick I'd never seen the experts do.

There was "Flubber," a transparent and gelatinous glob named after the movie of the same name. After a few hours of handling and playing with the toxic and gelatinous mess, I broke out in a case of hives that the allergy doctor had no cure for, aside from some head- shaking and a discourse on the evils of marketing.

Then came "Silly Putty," the awesome and much-maligned "Superball," and its companion product, a golf ball version that supposedly flew a quarter mile, on its way through several windshields and picture windows.

Then there were the collectible cards: The Man From Uncle, James Bond- and the Beatles, sneaking into the fray around '65 or '66.

I never owned any of the latter, knowing of them only because my friend Dick Gunsolus showed me one he'd swiped from his sister Judy. They looked okay, but they were pictures of guys, so big deal.

The cartoon show was running by fall of '65, as well, which was also one of the few times I could hear the songs in their entirety, the only other avenue coming by way of snippets I heard

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