When I’m 64 (or so)
Jan Fassler still remembers the screams.
The memories — the seats, high up in the recently constructed Busch Memorial Stadium, the rain that fell steady through the evening, frenzied fanatics passing out left and right — don’t end there, but the screaming, incessant and loud enough to drown out the band everyone came to see, stands out from that night nearly 50 years ago.
“I don’t think I heard one note of music,” Fassler said. “It was just solid screaming all around you, all the time.”
Fassler, Sheila Sorgea, Sara Sladek and Nancy Schmidt were among the roughly 23,000 fans in attendance on Aug. 21, 1966, when The Beatles visited St. Louis. And tonight, almost 50 years to the day, the lifelong friends, sans Schmidt, will once again be there when former Beatles singer and guitarist Paul McCartney performs at Busch Stadium III.
The stadium isn’t the only thing that has changed in 50 years. In fact, between last names (East Alton-Wood River High School Class of 1969 classmates may remember them as Jan Myers, Sheila Lindsey, Sara Lewis and Nancy Russell), occupations and children, it may be easier to list the things that haven’t changed since those days.
One thing that hasn’t changed is their love, for the Fab Four and for each other. Clad in Beatles shirts, Fassler, Sorgea and Sladek met outside their old high school Monday to talk life, that night in 1966 and their excitement about the upcoming concert.
By: Nathan Grimm
Source: Advantage News
