Fab 5 weekend.

The last couple of days have been busy...... we had friends visiting from downtown Houston..... K & B were here with K's grandson, and a lunch for five turned into a lunch for seven when K's two friends drove into town on an errand. They were so close to our home that we asked them to come and see the house and stay for lunch as well. We all had a nice long visit..... the weather was hot but not broiling, and there was a nice breeze all day long. Not breezy enough to eat outside... that's not going to happen till at least October. Maybe by October, all the spiders will be gone, too, along with the high 90s and low 100s temperatures. One day on the news this week, the weather wizard at the Houston station told us "Hang in there, folks, today's temperature is cooling down a mite... the high will be just about 94 this afternoon."

We were in town tonight for one of the "Hot Nights, Cool Tunes" concerts. The music was a group called "The Fab 5," from Houston. Wonderful music..... mostly Beatles classics, with a little bit of Rolling Stones, Chicago, and Moody Blues tossed in here and there. They played for three hours, with just three ten-minute breaks in each hour. Great band...... everyone was clapping and tapping, and people were dancing....... kids were playing and parents didn't have to worry about them because the main streets in town were closed off to traffic.

The town has these summer concerts every weekend and they are very popular. The park-like wood benches that are scattered all over town are brought into the square where a stage is set up for the band, and people bring their lawn chairs and blankets and everyone just has a good old-fashioned great time. Everyone is smiling..... everyone picks up their trash when they leave..... the kids all get along...... it is Mayberry, come to life.

My friend B in Florida tells me that this town sounds like a throw-back to 60 years ago on Long Island, where the towns were small, the neighbors knew one another, and no one locked their doors.

As we sat there listening to the music tonight, mostly all of the adults our age were singing along with the band...... amazing how you can remember lyrics from so long ago. Was it because we listened to those records over and over again way back then? Or was it because that music came along at an impressionable time in our lives and it just stayed with us all these years?

One of the band members talked about the first time The Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan show in the 1960s. Surely, everyone who was a teenager back then will remember that night...... music changed forever during that one television show. The first time my dad heard The Beatles on the radio, he told me "Those guys can't sing. And besides that, they all need haircuts. They're not going to last long, believe me."

A few years ago, we saw Paul McCartney when he did a concert in Houston. He came to Houston twice, and we saw both shows. I never did see The Beatles in concert when I was a kid, but I had all their records, bought all the teen magazines, and even tried to learn to play the guitar.

I gave all my Beatles records to my cousin F when I turned 18; I don't remember what happened to all the teen magazines and the hundreds of pictures I had of Paul; and the guitar ended up in the back of a closet somewhere. I cried when John Lennon was shot in NYC, and I felt sad when George Harrison died. I'm happy that Ringo is still making music, and who isn't thrilled that Paul is still Paul, just older. And he's Sir Paul, according to Queen Elizabeth.

The Beatles have out-lasted everyone. Their music was earth-shaking in the 1960s and their timeless style is still shaking the earth now. Even in Mayberry.