Post by jr on Dec 8, 2010 17:49:49 GMT 1
The year was 1992. It was one of those beautiful weekdays somewhere between late summer and early fall and my girlfriend and I decided to rack our bikes to the back of my car and headed up to Central Park. I guess it was about noon that day and we were riding along the pathway between the Loeb Boathouse and Bethesda Fountain when we came upon a street performer. He sounded pretty good so we got off our bikes and weaved our way through the crowd to listen for a while. I noticed a song list near the stack of CD’s he was selling. I read through it and found a Beatles’ song from Sgt. Pepper called “Fixing a Hole”, one of my favorites. I asked him if he could play it and he did. From that moment on, this day took on a very strange twist.
Later on we visited The Dairy where we chatted with the manager whose name was Bill. Co-incidentally, later in the day we ran into this same Bill walking along a pathway in some distant part of the park far away from where we first met him. A while later, after we got directions from some guy riding a mountain bike, we were even more surprised to meet this same guy again when he waited on our table at dinner time at Pappardella, a restaurant al fresco on the corner of Columbus Ave at 75th Street. My girlfriend and I laughingly dismissed these two coincidences as John Lennon’s way of communicating some kind of message to us regarding his “Double Fantasy” album.
After it got dark it turned out to be one beautiful evening. We rode back across town and into the park at 72nd Street. My girlfriend had some fruit in her bag so we decided to have our dessert inside of Strawberry Fields where there is a grassy meadow off to the left of the pathway just past the Imagine Mosaic. Entering the meadow I noticed there was no moon out this night and it was very dark. We walked our bikes out into the middle of the meadow and sat down on the grass. Since it was a weeknight, there wasn’t another soul anywhere around and I started entertaining my girlfriend by singing my own brand of left handed lyrics to a Lesley Gore song called “Judy’s Turn to Cry”, a song about a boy named Johnny. I started singing and soon I got my girlfriend worked up and laughing at my ad lib verses as we clapped our hands as we both rocked back and forth on the grass in time with the rhythmn.
After that we left Strawberry Fields and decided to ride down to the Tavern on the Green to take some photos of the beautiful lights in the trees surrounding this restaurant at night. Having done all that it was now getting late and time to head home. But when I reached my hand down into my pants pocket I suddenly discovered the key was gone. After a while we regained our senses. I figured it must have fallen out of my pocket when we were sitting out on the grass at Strawberry Fields. I even considered calling a locksmith but I said “Let’s ride back to Strawberry Fields. The key must be there somewhere. Let’s try to find it”. My girlfriend looked at me with a great deal of skepticism.
We then rode back to Strawberry Fields and entered the meadow. Remember it was later and by now it was pitch dark. We both ever so slowly walked our bikes out into the middle of the darkness. It was then and there something made me reach down to the ground. As my hand drifted into the grass, my finger made direct contact with my key. I will never ever forget that moment for as long as I live. Even now when I remember what happened that night, I think about the song from the Magical Mystery Tour called "Baby You're A Rich Man" and the phrase "Now that you've found another key”.
Was our chance encounter with that street performer and our singalong on the lawn that night directly across the street from where John Lennon lost his life some kind of séance that made a connection with John Lennon's spirit? I wonder.
Later on we visited The Dairy where we chatted with the manager whose name was Bill. Co-incidentally, later in the day we ran into this same Bill walking along a pathway in some distant part of the park far away from where we first met him. A while later, after we got directions from some guy riding a mountain bike, we were even more surprised to meet this same guy again when he waited on our table at dinner time at Pappardella, a restaurant al fresco on the corner of Columbus Ave at 75th Street. My girlfriend and I laughingly dismissed these two coincidences as John Lennon’s way of communicating some kind of message to us regarding his “Double Fantasy” album.
After it got dark it turned out to be one beautiful evening. We rode back across town and into the park at 72nd Street. My girlfriend had some fruit in her bag so we decided to have our dessert inside of Strawberry Fields where there is a grassy meadow off to the left of the pathway just past the Imagine Mosaic. Entering the meadow I noticed there was no moon out this night and it was very dark. We walked our bikes out into the middle of the meadow and sat down on the grass. Since it was a weeknight, there wasn’t another soul anywhere around and I started entertaining my girlfriend by singing my own brand of left handed lyrics to a Lesley Gore song called “Judy’s Turn to Cry”, a song about a boy named Johnny. I started singing and soon I got my girlfriend worked up and laughing at my ad lib verses as we clapped our hands as we both rocked back and forth on the grass in time with the rhythmn.
After that we left Strawberry Fields and decided to ride down to the Tavern on the Green to take some photos of the beautiful lights in the trees surrounding this restaurant at night. Having done all that it was now getting late and time to head home. But when I reached my hand down into my pants pocket I suddenly discovered the key was gone. After a while we regained our senses. I figured it must have fallen out of my pocket when we were sitting out on the grass at Strawberry Fields. I even considered calling a locksmith but I said “Let’s ride back to Strawberry Fields. The key must be there somewhere. Let’s try to find it”. My girlfriend looked at me with a great deal of skepticism.
We then rode back to Strawberry Fields and entered the meadow. Remember it was later and by now it was pitch dark. We both ever so slowly walked our bikes out into the middle of the darkness. It was then and there something made me reach down to the ground. As my hand drifted into the grass, my finger made direct contact with my key. I will never ever forget that moment for as long as I live. Even now when I remember what happened that night, I think about the song from the Magical Mystery Tour called "Baby You're A Rich Man" and the phrase "Now that you've found another key”.
Was our chance encounter with that street performer and our singalong on the lawn that night directly across the street from where John Lennon lost his life some kind of séance that made a connection with John Lennon's spirit? I wonder.
