Abersoch Pier, Easter 1963
On holiday with my family
Photo by Kenneth Taylor
I did not want to be on Abersoch Pier in April 1963. The Beatles had released 'From Me to You' that same week and I had to be where the action was: girls. My first girlfriend, Susan Shaw, had told me about The Beatles the previous Autumn. By the Spring of 1963 I had a new girlfriend: Liz Evans from Beech Walk in Leigh. This is what demanded my attention that particular week, not Abersoch Pier. For the next few years you could measure your life in Beatles releases because those were big big events – as big to a fifteen year-old as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, November 1963, by which time I was on my third girlfriend: Susan Bell of Beechwood, Chorley New Road, Bolton. And that is where I was when I heard about the assassination: sitting in the back room with Susan and her mother Joyce.
To be exact, 'From Me to You' was released on 11th April, 1963. In Abersoch, Easter Sunday was 14th April. And actually, the shooting of John Kennedy was a much bigger event than anything happening in England in 1963. Even now, it feels to me the world took a step backwards.
In 2024, President Biden was 81/82. Another four years as President takes it to 86. If John Kennedy had not been shot he might have been President of the USA until (1917 + 86) years = 2003 and not 1963.
