Page 142 - slovenia

he was 6 and a framed program on the wall from the “St. Pe-
ter’s Church Garden Fete — 3 p.m., July 6, 1957” —where John
and his Quarrymen first met Paul.

The more formal, small front living room, with built-in book-
shelves lining both sides of the fireplace, was where John
would sit and write poetry and song lyrics, telling Mimi, “You
should keep these because I’m going to be famous one day
and they’ll be worth something!” This is also where he and
Paul sat down to play guitars together, and where they would
rehearse on Sunday afternoons with friends, including one
with a six-piece drum set, until Mimi banished them for peace
and quiet.

“The guitar’s all right, John, but you’ll never make a living with
it,” she once told him. Later she cheerfully answered the huge
piles of his fan mail at the window desk.

“Come here!” the guide exclaimed, motioning me out the front
door. “Sing something!”

When I protested that I couldn’t carry a tune, he then pointed
out the small, enclosed, windowed front porch, where John
and Paul rehearsed, finding the acoustics perfect for harmo-
nizing.

After climbing the wooden staircase in the entry hall, I toured
John’s tiny, narrow front bedroom, which had a twin bed
pushed to one side, and small dresser. It was here where he
would spend hours on the bed reading, with his feet up on
the wall, drawing, dreaming, gazing out the bay window to the
street, and writing songs — including “Please, Please Me.”

Yoko Ono, who purchased Mendips in 2002 and donated
it to The National Trust, which opened it to the public the
following year, wrote in the guidebook: “Everything that hap-
pened afterwards germinated from John’s dreaming in his
little bedroom.”

Next we rode to nearby 20 Forthlin Rd., Allerton, a two-story

John and Paul pose in front of drum set.
Coutesy Wikimedia Commons.

142 WDT MAGAZINE SPRING 2017