This morning, got up and ready. Walked to train stationing Manchester for a day trip to Liverpool. It took less than an hour. It’s really impressive. Condoms in the ladies room at the train station. Brilliant! You Brits. A favorite pic. Hit it just right. Heard it was an industrial town. The architecture, both old and new, is beautiful. My plan was to take the Beatles tour, Magical Mystery Tour. Got my ticket at the LIverpool station. I walked almost 45 min to the bus, up and down lots of hills. By the time I got there, I was ready for Magical Mystery, sit on your ass, tour. Prince Albert Pier at the Docks City Center in Liverpool. We all have our towers, like San Antonio, this one looks like a big mic The bus took us around to all the Beatle sites, where they were born, met and grew up. Our tour guide told us anecdotes of their life and played Beatles music.

Seems that Yoko Ono is buying up any property related to John Lennon and donating it “to the national Trust”. The National Trust preserves historical property like castles.

A friend asked John his favorite childhood memory..he said Strawberry Fields. It is a walled gate that contained a mansion, John would crawl over the wall and play as a child. His Aunt Mimi, told John not to..he said “It’s nothing to get on about”. We saw the gates of Strawberry Fields… it has nothing to do with strawberries. John told Paul that he wrote a song about his favorite childhood place.

Then Paul wrote “Penny Lane” about where he grew up. Today we saw, Penny Lane the street, now the whole area is called Penny Lane. We saw the barber shop, the fire house with the “clean machine”. We passed by the bank..that the banker was “very strange”. We saw the grave of Eleanor Rigby.

We ended our Beatles Tour with the song “In My Life”, probably my favorite.

“There are places I remember, all my Life..though some have changed” ….some have gone and some remain… All these places had their moments…of lovers and friends…I still can recall. Some are dead and some are living..In My Life,I’ve loved them all, but of all these friends and lovers, there is no one compares with you. of people and things that went before Though I know I’ll never lose affection for people and places I’ve been before, but when I stop and think about it…In MY Life, I’ve loved them all But in my life…I’ve loved you more.”

I’ve told my kids that that is the song I want played at my funeral. The legacy of the Beatles for me is they were the first to introduce me to rock and roll, the music of my childhood, that helped me cope with tumultuous adolescence… can’t do housework without listening to it.. to this day. John was my Beatle, the rebel and leader. His death was the first time I ever truly felt a personal loss from a death. Unfortunately, there were many more difficult losses to come for me. This visit to Liverpool was happy, reflective, and a lovely day.