John Lennon
(from John Lennon’s Autobiography, In My Life)
The Northland Boys didn’t last too long, I’m saddened to say. For about 8 months we played at local clubs, any gig we could get. Most of the time we played for free, or for a meal. I had lost track of my dad by the time the band broke up early in 58, so I was completely on my own. With nothing holding me down in Wellington, I decided to go where any Kiwi who wanted to make it big would go first, Australia.
I packed everything I could fit in a knapsack and left for the docks. I had just enough money for a ticket to Sydney by boat. While waiting at the docks in Wellington, I had a long conversation with a young man, about 30 I think he was. He had a wife and a small child about the age of 2 with him. He and his family were going to America so that he could go to a seminary school in Indiana. Apparently this was all about him keeping a promise he made to his father in law, that he couldn’t marry the man’s daughter unless he became a preacher and went to the same school he did. I felt a kind of kindred spirit with him. We were both leaving the homes we knew our whole lives for a life we desire. For him it would be a life of a husband and a man of God. For me it would be a life of debauchery and quasi-hethanism. Why I tell this story is because this would not be the last time I meet this man. In fact one day this man would save my life. He’d remember me, but I wouldn’t remember him.[1]
I stepped my first foot in Sydney on May 8th, 1958. I felt like a pirate in a way, here to find a crew and go pillaging for life’s greatest pleasures.
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1. The man who John Lennon meets at the docks in Wellington is my Grandfather. I know, kind of a shameless insert, but I thought "what the hell, it's my timeline". My Grandfather, and my father, are native Kiwis, although my father grew up in the US. But yeah, my Grandfather did leave for the US in 1958, so I thought having some kind of religious influence on John would be a good thing. You know, a normal religion instead of what ever the heck Yoko got him into.
(from John Lennon’s Autobiography, In My Life)
The Northland Boys didn’t last too long, I’m saddened to say. For about 8 months we played at local clubs, any gig we could get. Most of the time we played for free, or for a meal. I had lost track of my dad by the time the band broke up early in 58, so I was completely on my own. With nothing holding me down in Wellington, I decided to go where any Kiwi who wanted to make it big would go first, Australia.
I packed everything I could fit in a knapsack and left for the docks. I had just enough money for a ticket to Sydney by boat. While waiting at the docks in Wellington, I had a long conversation with a young man, about 30 I think he was. He had a wife and a small child about the age of 2 with him. He and his family were going to America so that he could go to a seminary school in Indiana. Apparently this was all about him keeping a promise he made to his father in law, that he couldn’t marry the man’s daughter unless he became a preacher and went to the same school he did. I felt a kind of kindred spirit with him. We were both leaving the homes we knew our whole lives for a life we desire. For him it would be a life of a husband and a man of God. For me it would be a life of debauchery and quasi-hethanism. Why I tell this story is because this would not be the last time I meet this man. In fact one day this man would save my life. He’d remember me, but I wouldn’t remember him.[1]
I stepped my first foot in Sydney on May 8th, 1958. I felt like a pirate in a way, here to find a crew and go pillaging for life’s greatest pleasures.
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1. The man who John Lennon meets at the docks in Wellington is my Grandfather. I know, kind of a shameless insert, but I thought "what the hell, it's my timeline". My Grandfather, and my father, are native Kiwis, although my father grew up in the US. But yeah, my Grandfather did leave for the US in 1958, so I thought having some kind of religious influence on John would be a good thing. You know, a normal religion instead of what ever the heck Yoko got him into.