Today it is hard to conceive the cultural shift that began with the Beatles. In 1964 midwestern North America was extremely conservative in everything, including thought, music, dress, and hairstyle. In the Beatles, I saw something I really liked, and tried to emulate. In doing so, I created turbulence with most of the older generation around me.
Surprisingly, my mother helped me out in my enthusiasm over the Beatles. She saw me standing in front of a mirror one day, trying to turn under the collar behind my neck on my sport coats, in an attempt to make it look like one of the jackets that the Beatles wore. She had lots of experience making, and adjusting clothing on her sewing machine, and so after a discussion about what I was looking for, she walked off with my sports coat and started to work on it.
She did a great job transforming the coat. The result looked just like a Beatle jacket that I could button straight up to my neck, which was round, like a sweater. It looked just like a Beatle jacket. I was eager to wear it, any chance I got.
Mr. Hoover, our choir director, liked to have us present ourselves in a professional manner. Before our tour to rural high schools, he called me in and talked to me about my hair, (I think on Vice Principal Buck’s behalf), but I explained again, that I liked long hair, and my hair length wasn’t hurting anyone, and so he soon dropped the subject.
In order to appear professional and sophisticated on these tours, female members of the choir were directed to dress in formal type long dresses, while us males were to be attired in dark trousers, white shirt and tie, and sport coats. My “sport coat” was my Beatle jacket.
Off we went to the rural Indiana high schools. While Evansville, my conservative home town always seemed to me to be extremely ‘out of it’ when it came to popular culture, I was in for a shock when we entered the doors of these rural high schools. The students from these agricultural small towns had never seen any live person that looked anything close to what I looked like.
I was noticed, followed around, with girls were pointing and giggling, kids were coming up and to look through the cafeteria windows at me as I ate my lunch. It was all very strange and unsettling to be getting so much overt attention.
I had always thought it would be great to have all the adoration and attention that the Beatles received, but after that day in those rural Indiana high schools, I began to realize how much I disliked being on constant display. It became a real dilemma for me. I wanted to wear my hair long, but I also wanted to just be left alone and anonymous. This wouldn’t have been too hard in a big urban center, but the two didn’t mix very well in southern Indiana.
That episode that began in Mr. Buck’s office did change the direction of my life. I began to feel what is like to be discriminated against, because of a physical attribute. I hadn’t hurt anyone, so why had I been treated like I had. I began to feel a greater empathy towards blacks, the handicapped, and others who faced overt and subtle discrimination.
Vice Principal Buck was wrong. My long hair hadn’t made me end up in prison, although at one point, because of the moral stand I took against the Viet Nam war, I thought that prison might just be my fate.
In the course of my life, the time spent in the Vice Principal’s office was of extremely short duration, but it had life-long implications for me. It gave me some satisfaction and confidence knowing that when I was faced with threats and bullying that I felt was unjust, I had refused to cave in. I had stood my ground and was prepared to face the consequences. That stance, which I first took in Mr. Buck’s office, eventually led me to leave my home country of the United States, and to live the remainder of my life in more tolerable and open-minded Canada.
I photoshopped the photo above to give you an idea of what my Beatle coat looked like.
View my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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