You say it's your birthday- well it's my birthday too, yeah! (Nearly... 2 days)

Happy Birthday, John.

I got back from my job interview with ACP (more about this later!! I'm an intern!!), and was fully intending to spend a day at home, resting the wooden peg-leg that I feel as if my thigh has become. That and doing my work for my classes, and getting a start on my Mum's business proposal.

But the first email that I opened was from a guy in my poetry class inviting me down to Strawberry Fields that day... John Lennon's 68th birthday. So I thought, what the hell, I'll take my books down there and study in the park while listening to a couple of guys strum out Sexy Sadie.

That's not what happened at all. I very successfully managed to negotiate the local/5/6 subway route to my advantage! But then walked the wrong way to the park... When I was one block over... HOW do I always do this?? I really am completely and utterly HOPELESS.

Anyway, I walked in to the little section marked 'STRAWBERRY FIELDS'. After Lennon's assassination around the corner on Dec 8th 1980, Yoko put in some money and they dedicated this part for him, between 71st and 74th on the West Side. I know that Strawberry Fields really alludes to Liverpool, but this WAS where he died people!

As soon as you rounded the path, I could hear She Loves You being played by a few different guitars. And once you actually get to the main area, this is what you see.

You can't see the 'Imagine' mosaic to start with. This is due to two things:
1. There are too many people in the music circle to be able to see it
2. There are too many flowers and letters to be able to see it!

When I first arrived at 1pm, there were maybe 50 people around the monument, including 3 acoustic guitars and a bass with an amp. I could move my way to the front pretty easily, and nabbed myself a sitting inner circle spot in about 10 minutes. And that's where I stayed until about 3. I literally didn't move. And my leg wasn't aggravated because I wasn't moving for so long that it went numb anyway!! (however, pins and needles in a torn muscle is NOT nice.)

As the day wore on, more people came. I a lot of people would stay on the outskirts for a few songs then move on, but there were about 20 of us from the original lot who stayed out the entire day. But the most amazing part was not the people coming to add to the mound of flowers and candles; it was the musicians. By the time I left at 8pm, there were at LEAST 20 acoustic guitars, a dozen electric ones with amps, 3 or 4 basses, someone brought a DRUM KIT (???), a flute, and countless tambourines and maracas. Not to mention up to 300 people belting out Hey Jude... And there were so many of us, that enough people would take the harmony or the background parts, so at some stages it actually SOUNDED like the tracks... Well. Kind of. At some stages I would look behind me and not be able to see the trees. We were at least 6 or 7 people deep around this circle.

I swapped seats to get a different angle at about 3pm, and ended up chatting to 2 girls that I'd been taking photos of! We spent the rest of the day together, and we also picked up a musician who'd come from Staten Island to pay his respects. He goes by the name Joe Boots. (He thinks this was original. I just wanted to bring him to Melbourne to show him tat he's not the first muso who's wearing boots). But everyone was picking EVERYONE up... Seriously, free love was flowing!

Needing some air from the wonderfully claustrophobic circle, the 3 of us girls moved out to the edge. This is when we met Garry, the infamous Mayor of Strawberry Fields. Google him! He's been looking after the site everyday for the past 16 years. He's a homeless bloke with one SERIOUS love of Lennon. He does impromptu speeches and gets tips from that - which he uses partly on himself, but also to buy a plethora of flowers that he decorates the site with everyday. All of the photos you see of the roses making the peace signs over the IMAGINE? That's him!

When we return back to the circle, he steps in and announces that someone 'very special' was here. Sid-fucking-Bernstein! THE man who brought The Beatles to the USofA. He acted all abashed and such, but he got serenaded for the next few songs, and was bought to the front of the circle of luuuuuuurve.

I also got my journal out so that the girls could write down their facebook names so that they could see the photos I was taking. Well. People kept on asking if they could get them too, and before I knew it, my journal was getting passed around the circle!! It came back about 45 minutes later (I don't know how they knew it was mine), and I guess people thought it was a place to dedicate memories to John or something, because it came back with 6 pages of Birthday messages! Some from New York, some from Hong Kong, some from Sweden, even one from Sydney! And the most wonderful thing is that I have no idea who wrote them all :) Are we getting this collective community feel down now? Imagine it when the sun set and everyone was handing out candles... Oh! And this is Central Park in Fall by the way! THE TREES!!!!

I was standing out the front talking to The Mayor when a bicycle taxi guy came up and asked us if we wanted a ride. This followed:
BIKE: "You guys wanna ride round the area?"
GARRY: "... Do you know who I am?"
BIKE: "... no, Sir"
GARRY: "I'm the fucking Mayor of these parts man. Don't tell me to peace out on my own ground."
COP(walking by casually): "Yeah man, you gotta know who you're talking to if you're hangin round Strawberry Fields. Now getchya ass outta here."
(Bike guy rides off while people stare at him with distgusted looks)
GARRY: "Thanks man. Love."
COP: "Anytime, Mayor."

Next thing I know he says "I wanna introduce you to a good friend of mine, and a good friend to the world". And he pulls me over to the bench where there's an old guy sitting with a cane. "Now Georgie, this is-"
ME: Sid Bernstein. Wow. I'm shaking your hand! I'm Georgia.
SID: Well Georgia's definitely on My Mind (starts to sing)
ME: (drooling)
A little conversation follows about the site and me just generally being abnormally quiet and respectful. By this time I've done the embarrassing fan photo thing, and he's referenced me as his 'Step-sister'... Eventually he says something like
SID: You've got a good man in this fellow here (patting Garry on the shoulder). Without him, this park wouldn't be raining love.
GARRY: Well it's sure not rainin today, Sid! I think that Lennon's up there right now talking to ol' Mother Nature and making sure that she's not gonna piss on our parade. We should seriously thank John for giving us this day. That's what he'd want up there.
ME: What do you think he's thinking right now? What would he say?
SID: ... He'd probably be looking down on us three and saying 'Damn, how did Sid land that bird?'. He'd love you for being here.
ME: (long pause) Did you just say that you think that John would be saying that he loves me?
SID: Well, yeah, really. He loved all of us at some point. And now he probably loves you too.
ME: (drowning in my own drool) So I can say that, according to the words of Sid Bernstein, John Lennon loves me??
SID: Whatever you want, sweetie.
ME: (paraplegic pool of pap) ..........

And then his nephew ushered him into a taxi and off they went! When I rejoined the little group that I'd become part of, 'Joe Boots' just about shat himself when he found out that Sid was there. And that was BEFORE I told him that I'd sat on a bench with him the past 20 minutes! I was finally one up on him. He may have been a talented New Yorker, but hey-

John Lennon loves me!

Give peace a chance. Strawberry Fields forever.