I LOVE PAUL!

Hidden in the deep recesses of a box somewhere in our house in Boise are two buttons; one proclaims  "I am an official Beatles fan" and the other proudly tells the world that "I love Paul."  I remember how my heart just did flips and flutters when I first saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964! As the music to "I want to hold your hand....." blasted out of our TV,  I was smitten with a serious case of Beatlemania. Beatles posters covered my walls and Beatles records played non-stop on my record player. I read every magazine article I could find about the Fab Four.  I was a serious fan!

Thanks to a very indulgent Daddy, I did get to see the Beatles live in 1966 in Memphis.  What a thrill that was!  I remember screaming along with all the other girls in the crowd!

Years later when our daughter Mary was a preteen, she and I were looking at a magazine with photos of the young Beatles.  When I told her that my favorite was Paul, she asked, "Which one is Paul?" and I replied, "The cute one."  She studied the photo for several more seconds before asking, "Which one is the cute one?"  Seriously how could anyone not see immediately that Paul is definitely the 'cute one'.

When I heard that Sir Paul McCartney was performing a concert in Seattle, I knew that I had to go.

Paul may be 71 years old but let me tell you, he can still rock!  And he is still cute!  During the three hour concert he sang 39 songs and came back for three encores.  Finally he said, "I know you want to rock but sometime I have to go home.  Sometime YOU have to go home even if it is Friday night."

When I see Paul perform now it shocks me to see the 'Paul expressions' that I have loved for so long on that definitely older face.  Then it hits me I have been listening to him sing for almost 50 years!  50 years....that is a long time! Practically a life time!

The Paul I swooned about in 1964 looked like this

The little girl who did the swooning looked like this:

                                  

Yep 50 years is a long time!  

Almost a lifetime later, I still think Paul is the cute one!  And watching him still makes my heart flutter!

What an amazing 50 years I've lived since then!  My life has been full of 'heart flutter' moments much more profound than that little girl could have ever imagined.  For that I am so grateful! 

Portland Hiking

The Portland city planners did a wonderful job integrating hiking trails into their master plan.  Today a group of ladies took advantage of this as we hiked the eight and a half miles from Lake Oswego right into downtown Portland. The tree lined trail made me feel like I was in the mountains not in a big city.

Occasionally we had views across to Mt. Hood and the Willamette River.  Beautiful!

Then in downtown Portland we got to sample the variety of foods at the famous Portland food carts.  My Indian food was as good as in a nice Indian restaurant....other people had gyros, Thai, Japanese or even barbecue.  Delicious and so 'Portland-ish'!  After lunch we took a city bus right back to Lake Oswego.

 What a fun day with a great group of ladies!  Now I want to do it again with spouses!

Done!

I am so happy to report that all the photos in the box from my mother's house that I showed in my last post are now in albums, labeled and dated! It took me two weeks instead of one but it is finished!  Yippee!

Now a word of advice for anyone with photos not labeled and dated.....

LABEL AND DATE them! 

You think you'll always remember where you were and who you were with and the date but trust me you won't.  This is especially important with older photos.  I realized that my children don't know all my relatives and certainly couldn't recognize pictures of them when they were children.  So if I don't label who is in these photos, when I am gone, no one will know!  I am the link that makes these photos a valuable part of family history!

And I also have to confess that I have trouble being absolutely sure which of my newborn babies is which!  I often had to rely on the pattern of the couch or the wallpaper or my hair style to know for sure! Those four Lewis babies were definitely cut from the same mold!