The Pounding of my Heart

From the Author

This is fan fiction that I penned over 50 years ago. I started writing this when I was 12-years old and finished it right after my 13th birthday. 

It's a story about two girls and their adventures with the Beatles in the summer of 1965 and early 1966. I finished writing this story when I was 13 years old and in 8th grade. At that time, a large number of girls in their early and mid-teens were fans of the Beatles, living and breathing their music and dreaming of meeting them in person.

I had totally forgotten about the story until I came across an old 3-ring Beatle's notebook with the carefully type-written mini-novel inside. When I cracked it open and started reading, I could hardly believe I 'd written such a ridiculous story, but thinking back to being 13 and "in love" with Paul, the memories came flooding back and I not only read it through to the end but decided to type it into my computer.

I originally started writing this in gym class in 8th grade on those rainy days, when gym was cancelled, and we all had to sit in the locker room for the duration of class time. As I'd always been somewhat of a storyteller, some of my friends suggested that I write down one of my stories to help alleviate the boredom and to pass the time. One rainy day in Fall, 1965, I pulled out a notebook and began writing, passing the pages down the row of girls sitting on the benches in the locker room as I finished each one. Over the term of the school year, I managed to crank out almost 300 hand-written pages, which I later typed up on my Smith-Corona typewriter and placed in the 3-ring Beatle binder.

Talking about this story recently to my best friend, and remarking on how I could possibly have written something so silly, she only commented that I was under a lot of pressure to get the next page done, with several rows of girls waiting for the next adventure to unfold. If you end up reading this, you'll certainly agree that my imagination must certainly have been taxed to be able to dream up the crazy and improbable scenes one after another.

In my story, Pauline, and her best friend, Cilla, who are of course "of age" and not 13 years old, find their dreams coming true when they attend a Beatle concert in San Diego. During the concert, Pauline flings herself up on the stage, knocking herself unconscious, then wakes up to find herself in the Beatle's dressing room. From there, she invites them to come stay with her on the island where she lives, and thus the adventures of Pauline and Cilla begin.

To enjoy this story, you probably need to have been a young teenage girl at the time the Beatles invaded America and a life-long Beatle's fan. You also need to relate to the 60's era and the innocent nature of young girls in Junior High, where sex ed classes weren't very enlightening. It was also a time when t.v.'s were mostly black and white, where there were no dishwashers or microwaves or cell phones, and where everyone dressed neatly and modestly.

Real families at the time weren't like the ones on "Leave it to Beaver" or "The Donna Reed Show." Dads still used "the belt" to punish unruly sons, Moms slapped their daughters if they "talked back," many families were what would be known today as "dysfunctional," and men were in control, expecting obedience not only from their children, but from their spouses as well. Most moms stayed at home, keeping house and having babies. Women's Lib was far in the future.

I hope this transports you back in time into some good memories and that the silly and unbelievable exploits of the two girls and the "fab four" keep you in stitches.