Because I am a good tourist and an obedient offspring of a baby boomer I made the pilgrimage to Abbey Road. That it was with the entirety of my class and fell under the heading of a field trip was just a happy coincidence. It also created the opportunity to manhandle the group into recreating the iconic album cover with me. While hardly original, there had never been a re-enactment with me in it and I was determined to remedy that. And if I was going to go to all of the trouble of embarrassing myself then it had better be perfect. Which meant that three of my classmates were going to walk when and where I told them to, with the appropriate feet first.

I chose my professor to take the picture, not only for his Britishness- thus knowing when to safely step into the middle of the street (what is so hard about looking to your right? Americans…) – but also for his very encouraging attitude. He and I really seemed to be the only people thoroughly enjoying writing on the studio wall and staring at Paul’s former apartment. So he also got to be the one to hold my gold ballet flats while I marched across the zebra stripes, barefoot, with my reluctant compatriots. There was some traffic stoppage involved, but that’s hardly new for me. Pretty hair really is an irreplaceable tool of power. Anyway, if you’re driving down Abbey Road then you really ought to expect morons to fling themselves into the street anyway. And so, with the lorries at a standstill and a piece of gravel stuck under my baby toe, we walked across the street (like fifteen times).

The picture is a little less than perfect, but I think the spirit of the exercise was preserved. Pretty much everyone thought I was ridiculous, but that could be why I had so much fun. Never let the people around you keep you from enjoying the things you’re excited about in exactly the way you want to. In fact, I find forcible participation rather effective.