Free The Beatles Are Here! by Penelope Rowlands Page A

hear more music. I had to own the 45 of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” with “I Saw Her Standing There” on the flip side. After I got it, I played it to death.
I used to see my best friend, Joann Pugliese, all the time because she lived in my aunt’s apartment building, five blocks from where I lived; it was really my second home. It was one of those old Bronx buildings with two entrances off the vestibule. My aunt’s apartment was on the first floor in the left wing and Joann lived on the third floor in the right wing. My aunt’s kitchen window and Joann’s kitchen window overlooked the back courtyard. If I looked out my aunt’s window and Joann looked out of hers we could see each other. When the windows were open we would call out to each other.
One day Joann called out and then came down from her apartment to my auntie’s. She was waving her arms and shrieking, “I’ve got the album! I’ve got the album!” It was the long-awaited Meet the Beatles. We were finally seeing them for the first time. We went ballistic! Well, now we REALLY loved them! I immediately had a crush on George and she on Paul. That’s when we started trying to convince each other which one was cuter . . .
What made them so special? Their sound had a rhythm or beat like we’d never heard before—they named themselves The Beatles, after all—and their words just spoke to us. For me, they were in step with a young girl just becoming a young woman. “I Want to Hold Your Hand”?—a very big deal back then, holding hands. And the lyrics to “I Saw Her Standing There”? “My heart went boom when I crossed that room and I held her hand in mine”? We lived those words at St. Mary’s sock hops! Elvis, Dylan, and Motown were all great, but the Beatles thrilled us to the core.
When they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show we had to have more pictures. We filled our little Brownie cameras with black and white film, shut the lights and took pictures of the TV. This was Joann’s idea. We didn’t know if it would work but it did, they turned out great. (BTW . . . she’s quite a photographer today.)
The Beatles were coming to Forest Hills. The problem was, How do we get there? It was an evening concert. We were young and couldn’t travel the subways alone at night. We felt so isolated in the Bronx. I pleaded with my parents for days. “You have to take us! You have to take us!” Finally, they said “Okay, okay, we’ll take you!” We ended up in the top row crying and screaming our heads off. We couldn’t hear a word they sang. After their helicopter takeoff, we looked at each other. We hadn’t heard anything. We left hoarse but ecstatic. My parents picked us up. We rode home in a daze.
Our next chance to see them was at the hotel where they stayed after the Forest Hills concert; we heard they would be staying there at the Delmonico Hotel on Park Avenue and 59th Street. Joann’s cousin Linda joined us. We met at Joann’s house and that’s when Linda rolled out this huge sign that read BEATLES PLEASE STAY HERE 4-EVER . I remember being embarrassed by it. I thought it was childish. I was, like, what are we doing with this big sign! But she had made the sign and we took it and the number 2 train down to Manhattan. We stood in front of the hotel and every time someone opened a window we would start screaming even if only the blinds moved.
We were crazy and that’s how you and I met. We both loved George. We connected over that. You said you had also gone to Forest Hills and had been high up like we were in the stands. I remember you were very energetic and you had curly blond hair. I remember very distinctly talking to you all afternoon. I really liked you and remember saying to myself, “I could be her friend.” I was kind of sad thinking I wouldn’t see you anymore. It sounds crazy but it’s true.
And then came the man with the camera. I remember he just crouched in front of us, clicked, and walked away. I had no idea he was with a