Last time I took a trip to St. John's Wood in London, I thought I found one of Paul's famous homes. He seems to have many homes and I can't keep track. Not only can't I list them all, but I made the mistake of taking a picture just because a home was next to Abbey Road Studios. As Paul actual local address was several roads away, today, I decided to look for it.
In the 60s, a group of famous fans, called "Apple Scruffs" waited outside Paul's Cavendish address, at times, on a daily basis. In my case, A.S. doesn't stand for "Apple Scruff" ("A Stalker" is more appropriate). All kidding aside, I chickened out. I'm not "A Stalker", but every few months, I remind myself that it cost virtually nothing to travel to London and look for Beatles(and Paul) related places.
I may have mention before that I found a great book to assist in finding all these places- The Beatles' London . Instead of guessing where one of Paul's homes might be, I looked it up in the book. My Plan A, was rather lame- Step 1- Get On The Street. Step 2- Hide My Beatles Badges, Step 3- Walk Past The Home Slowly And Proceed To The End Of The Street, and finally, Step 4- Run Back To The House And Go In For Tea. (Step 4- was only meant to happen if Paul ran outside to yell "Meredith! Where Are You Going?").
In reality, I went with Plan B(even worse, yet actually happened). This "Plan" consisted of taking a quick selfie on the corner with the street sign, which didn't come out. Slowly moving down the road, I crossed over to the other side. This put me on the wrong side of the street, as I was looking to find the number. There was a small problem, the number wasn't visible from the street but simple counting indicated it was between the homes numbered "5" and "9"(it's 7 Cavendish Avenue, if like myself, you had to look up in a book). When I found it, "Papa, I'm Home..." did not get broadcasted on a mega phone.
Yes, folks, I froze. I never crossed over the street to be pressing my nose on the closed wooden gate. I spend about a minute to take two photos of what it looked like 50 feet away, and then continued to mosey down the road. I looked back behind me as a van stopped and parked close to Paul's gate. Needless to point out the man who emerged was NOT Paul McCartney but some man in an orange high vis vest. *cue losing contestant gameshow noise*. It was time to leave as I decided against taking a picture of the closest postbox at the very end of the road and looked to rent a bike.
It seemed to be more easier to walk twenty minutes to Baker Street to return to the London Beatles Store to look for magazines. Appropriately, "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" the song inspired by Apple Scruffs breaking into the home that I spent part of the afternoon passing by, was playing on the store's speakers.
Those were the days, my friend, and they definately did end...
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