I Met the Walrus_ How One Day With John Lennon Changed My Life Forever - Jerry Levitan [19]
I started walking home. It was only 1:00 P.M. and I felt as though I had lived a lifetime that morning. I was barely a half a mile away when Danny chased after me. Danny was the hippest kid I knew. In sixth grade he brought Bob Dylan albums to our English class. Our teacher was a nerdy, bald, portly man with bad breath as I recall, but he was genuinely interested in what kids were influenced by. He would often show us films and talk about music rather than books. I would rant about the Beatles and one day Danny challenged my heroes’ stature with the poetry of the upstart Dylan.
Danny was also the first kid I knew who was into Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. I liked them, too, but Zappa, his music and his in-your-face attitude was quite imposing to me. Curiously, John Lennon would say the same thing when he performed with Zappa and the Mothers for the first time in June 1971. Danny liked to goad me by walking around with Zappa’s We’re Only in It for the Money. It came out in 1968 and was a sarcastic take on Sgt. Pepper, right down to the cover art that parodied the Beatles with smashed watermelons instead of flowers.
I was a bit intimidated by Danny because deep down I knew that he was more hip and intelligent than most of the other kids. He also was a bit of a stoner. “I believe you, Jerry,” he said, stopping me dead in my tracks. “Here. Give him this when you see him later.” Danny gave me something wrapped in foil. “Sure,” I replied and carried on with my walk home. My head was in the clouds thinking about what happened and what was yet to come. I passed the familiar homes and streets and approached the fenced-in hydro yard that was near my home. I reached into my pocket and opened the foil to see what Danny had given me. Inside was a thick black rectangular substance that looked like a weird piece of licorice about the size of a small candy bar. I smelled it. It did not smell like licorice. And then it dawned on me. Hashish! It must be hashish! I had never seen it before but I had heard about it. Quickly, making sure no one was watching, I tossed it into the large garbage bin by the building and ran all the way home. It was about 2:30 by now. I lay down on my bed and collapsed into an exhausted sleep.
It was as if I’d fallen asleep in a swimming pool. I was drenched when I suddenly awoke. I turned on the radio, CHUM of course, and all the deejay talked about was that John Lennon and Yoko Ono were in fact in Toronto and that we were blessed by his visit. The excitement poured through the radio waves. This would have been a big event anywhere, let alone Toronto. Even in London a Beatle sighting would be enough to lead off the evening news.
Terror gripped me. What I experienced that morning was real. I had met John Lennon. Not only that, I was going back to meet him again and the world was watching. But wait! I didn’t have a tape recorder. And it was 4:00 P.M. I had to leave soon. Panic set in. I grabbed the telephone book, looked up CHUM’s number, and called. “News desk, please,” I requested nervously. “CHUM news,” answered the gruff voice. “Hi. My name is Jerry. I have an exclusive with John Lennon at 6:00,” I said. “Yeahhhh, right,” he said. But I continued, “If you send someone to the King Edward with a tape recorder you can use the interview on tonight’s news.” I was frantically pleading at this point. “Call up Derek Taylor at the King Edward and you can check it out.” He took my number and hung up with barely a good-bye.
Within five heartbreaking minutes the phone rang. This time he was as sweet as could be. “Hi Jerry, CHUM here. We checked it out and you’re scheduled for 6:00. We’ll send someone with a tape recorder to the King Edward. He’ll be at the bar in the main lobby at a quarter to.” “Thanks so much…that’s great!” I said. I heard him continue to talk as I hung up. I had more important things to do. Straightening