Feb 9th 1964-The Night that changed America

Today marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles first live appearance on North American television on The Ed Sullivan Show.  I, along with 73 million, had been waiting for this moment. In the pre-internet days, news traveled a lot slower. We had heard of the group, their songs and their story. But now, to see them "live", was the ultimate. I was twelve years old at the time. To paraphrase a bit " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,but when I became a teen, I put away childish things. This was the start of my exodus from card collecting. I remember starting to buy 60/61 Topps hockey and baseball when they were issued. It became a yearly ritual with my brother and friends all involved in flipsies, bike wheel spokes and got-em, got-em, need'em. But now, my tastes were changing along with my buying habits. I, along with my sister, would buy 16 and Tiger Beat magazine to keep up with the musically changing world. It was also time to save money for the next important phase in my life. Sports was gone and being replaced by music. I must have had a mono track mind. I would need lessons and a guitar. I got all this at the Yamaha music centre. Now my teacher's name was Geoff Edmunds. He said his brother was some musician named Dave Edmunds.  As I said earlier, pre-internet days information was far and wide. At least at the centre, I could rent a guitar, learn, play and feel what it was like. What's not to like. Getting a job as a delivery boy for a drugstore helped my cash flow situation. After almost two years, my dream was accomplished.

Rock n' roll heaven. (guess I thought this was a cool look)

Of course, I wasn't the only one affected this way. I could jam with some of my friends. Now THE DREAM was to be a rock star, not an NHL player.

Well, neither of those aspirations came true for me. And in 1980, I stared collecting sports cards and memorabilia again. Picking up memories of long ago plus stuff that was new to me. I'm still collecting and still rocking in the free world.

"Something" from the music collection. (see how I worked that in)

I'll be watching the show tonight from 8:00-10:30 There is also a live streaming forum on CBSnews.com from 6:30-8:00. 

As they say, be there or be square.