"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," silly old me!

Ann Richardson Ocean City NJ — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:31:15 GMT

I read a letter to the editor in the Gazette yesterday, and have been chomping at the bit to get to my blog to discuss it. It was one of those days; doctors appointments and then I got invited to something for our Sandpaper publication, and "oh, could you write about it for tomorrow's paper," that kind of thing, and well, here I am, ready to fire back.
As you might recall, I wrote a column two weeks ago referring to a group of students who approached the Ocean City Board of Education in regards to a student publication called "The Speakeasy." OCHS Principal Dr. Matt Jamison, with the approval of Supt. Dr. Kathleen Taylor and the OC Board of Education, decided to thankfully, and finally, review publications coming out of the various clubs and activities, including this literary magazine.
A particular entry caught the attention of Jamison, interestingly written by a teacher. It contained profanity, bad profanity, and referred to topics that would not be appropriate for a school sponsored, taxpayer funded publication. Bad words, bad, bad topics. Inappropriate. He said no, and would not allow it to be published with this entry in it.
The students approached the BOE at a public meeting bemoaning the "censorship," First amendment, and so forth.
In my column, I discussed the difference between "appropriate," and "inappropriate" as it relates to high school students. Right and wrong, yes and no, that sort of thing. I applauded the school administration for saying no to children; the content was not appropriate for a high school publication. Yes, thank you someone has some common sense in our anything goes world.
I have discovered in recent weeks that most people agree with me, however they will not speak up. No one wants to be "made fun" of the way I was the next week. Deemed old fashioned and out of touch, the writers excoriated me for my beliefs. Too bad, I thank God for those who brought me up believing as I do, it makes life a lot easier when you have values and morals, rules to live by, those sorts of sometimes inconvenient truths about living a good life.
I also mentioned in my column that had I gone to battle over my First amendment rights I would have come face to face with my Uncle Scott, Scott Johnson who was at that time principal of OCHS. Teachers Joe Bonner and James Pulvino, advisors for the school newspaper, the Billows and yearbook, the Caravel would not have ever, ever allowed such a thing nor would we have asked, let alone taken issue with it publicly. INAPPROPRIATE, again, being the key word.
So I've taken a lot of heat, and many of you, running into me in various locales around town have kindly asked, in not so many words, how I still walk amongst you with so many arrows. Not a problem; stick to your core values and you'd be surprised how easy it is.
Why should I be intimidated because a certain segment of our population has lost their moral compass? Why should I be intimidated because I'm not a socialist? Why should I be intimidated because of my conservative roots and values? See, its pretty easy.
However, that being said Jean Bell's letter infuriated me. A little background. Jean hung out, as you might say, in a social group that at one time included my parents. After she was divorced, I recall my parents being part of a little support group that helped her, a single mom starting over.
Long time ago, but I do remember her sitting in our living room, in the kitchen, and so forth. I remember her borrowing a car, that sort of thing. We were neighborly, there when she needed help I suppose.
Years later when she retired I wrote a story about her, one of the early single moms launched back into the workforce, now retiring. I'm struggling with whether I'd take it back if I could. I recall then principal Dr. Joann Walls saying that she succeeded because of the Jean Bell's of the world. True.
Still struggling here.
Here is the letter she wrote. She was a teacher during the years my Uncle Scott was the principal. Keep in mind while he was the principal, I was a student, bearing the same last name. Everyone knew; not all of his decisions were popular. As an adult, reflecting upon this time, I am filled with pride; I think he was wonderful. At the time, it was tough. I had to develop thick skin. He was determined and stubborn, but those who knew him well knew a man with a wicked sense of humor and a lot of kindness.

To the editor:
Thought I wouldn't touch this one with a ten foot pole, in spite of the excellent letters published in last week's Gazette regarding the controversy over "censorship" at the high school. However, having recalled teaching at that institution, I can think of some fairly "iffy" content published in the then literary magazine. Of course, nothing to match the language commonly used in the hall by today's students.
But, what really provoked a chuckle goes back to the '70's. As advisor to the junior class, we planned for the prom by choosing a theme. It was "Time in a Bottle," a lovely song evoking memories to last a lifetime. Summoned to the principal's office I was told that it was inappropriate as it involved the use of alcohol. What? Perhaps the review policy was in place 35 years ago? And yes, it was Ann Richardson's uncle who was principal at the time. So, after much laughter from the students , and with tongue in cheek, we chose another theme: "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Anyone recall what this involved? It was approved. So much for "censorship."
Jean Bell.

Well, wasn't that lovely of her? Yes, I have thick skin, I really don't care if she pokes fun at me. Yes, she and the students had quite a chuckle! "After much laughter," ... ha! ha! ha! See, I told you how hard it was to be Scott Johnson's niece! I am trying to remember, 35 years ago would have been 1973 - junior class would have been my husbands class - it's quite possible I was at that prom! I don't remember the theme, but I did go in 1973.
Anyway, Jean Bell, the teacher/junior class advisor met with the students, laughed about pulling one over on the principal and allowed them to go forward with a prom theme that she knew to be a reference to drugs! Wow, isn't that cool?? Yo, way to go Jean!!
You know how out of touch I am with counter-culture anything? I knew enough to know that with the Beatles, anything could be a reference to drugs. However, I had a father who didn't fall far from the tree so to speak, and I was not allowed to have Beatles albums at that time. ( I bought them in college) Remember the "Mother Mary comes to me" reference? Yeah, well my dad banned the Beatles.
Anyhow, reading her letter I knew "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" meant something, but what? I had to go out. I asked a bunch of people, but most of my friends were duds like me in high school, slightly uninformed about serious drug use and counter culture. We all knew it meant something, but what? I thought about it all day, dumb old me.
It wasn't until I checked Wikipedia that it became apparent. Lucy, L in the Sky, S, with Diamonds, D. LSD! Yes, it's easy to put a puzzle together after the fact, isn't it?
Wow, Jean Bell is really way cool! LSD!!!
I bet it feels really good 35 years later, ten years after Scott Johnson's death, to spill these beans, too! Kudos to Jean Bell for being such a good teacher!!

This is what Wikipedia had to say:

Julian's drawing

According to the Beatles, one day in 1966 Lennon's son, Julian, came home from nursery school with a drawing he said was of his classmate, a girl named Lucy. Showing the artwork to his father, young Julian described the picture as "Lucy — in the sky with diamonds."

Julian later said, "I don't know why I called it that or why it stood out from all my other drawings, but I obviously had an affection for Lucy at that age. I used to show dad everything I'd built or painted at school, and this one sparked off the idea for a song about 'Lucy in the sky with diamonds'." ^[4]

His son's artwork appears to have inspired Lennon to draw heavily on his own childhood affection for Lewis Carroll's "Wool and Water" chapter from Through the Looking-Glass. At least one lyric was influenced by both Carroll and skits on a popular British radio comedy programme (The Goon Show) making references to "plasticine ties", which showed up in the song as "Plasticine porters with looking glass ties". A parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", recited by the Mad Hatter, appears in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Carroll's work has also been cited as having influenced Lennon's "I Am the Walrus" which refers to a character from Through the Looking-Glass and his two books, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works.

[edit] Who was Lucy?

The Lucy referred to in the song was probably a classmate of Julian's at Heath House School named Lucy O'Donnell, born in Weybridge in 1963.^[5] She has met up with him on a few occasions in the last few years, and occasionally appears on daytime shows for the anniversary of the "Sgt. Pepper's" album. She is featured in the book "A Hard Day's Night". She now lives in Surbiton in Surrey, and owned a nanny agency for children with special needs until she was taken ill with psoriatic arthritis and lupus some years ago.

There is another candidate for the original Lucy: British comedian Peter Cook's daughter, Lucy. Lennon and Cook were seeing quite a bit of each other at the time (Lennon made a guest appearance on Cook's TV show Not Only... But Also as a doorman). According to Cook's biographer, Harry Thompson, Lennon told Cook's then wife, Wendy, that the song was inspired by Lucy Cook.

According to documentary film that was shown on Russian TV, the title may refer to Lyudmila Zykina (or "Lucy") who met Beatles in restaurant and sung a Russian folk song for them.[1].

Reference to drugs and the title of the song

Paul McCartney recounted trading lyric ideas with Lennon in an interview, saying, "We never noticed the LSD initial until it was pointed out later, by which point people didn't believe us."^[6] This is confirmed by a 1971 interview of Lennon, where he admitted to curiously going so far as to search for acronyms in his other work, only to find "they didn't spell out anything." George Martin also denied the song was about LSD in the book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn. However, Lewisohn goes on to say "there can be little doubt that this was the very substance that provoked such colourful word imagery to flow out of Lennon's head and onto paper." ^[7] McCartney agrees in a 2004 interview, where he noted that Julian's painting had inspired the song, but that it was "pretty obvious" that the song was also inspired by LSD.^[8] For his part, Lennon attributed the colourful prose not to the drug, but to the writings of Lewis Carroll.

Another Real Estate Agent Assaulted

Ann Richardson Ocean City NJ — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:48:00 GMT

Another Real Estate Agent Assaulted

In what is now becoming an unfortunate, all too common occurrence, another real estate agent has been assaulted. This trend is scary; women are especially vulnerable, and in the off-season, Ocean City could be particularly dangerous.

In Lake Whitney, Texas a local real estate agent went on an appointment to list a home. She was meeting a man who identified himself as the person responsible for disposing of his late parents’ home. The agent, upon meeting the man at the home, was kidnapped, tied up, blindfolded and taken to the man’s home where he sexually assaulted her and called her relatives to demand a ransom for her safe return.

The Bosque County, Texas Sheriff’s Department, with the assistance of a helicopter from another nearby county spotted the agent’s car parked in the driveway of the home she where she had the listing appointment, but could not find any trace of the woman at that residence.

Responding to a call to the McLennan County, Texas Sheriff’s Department, deputies found the woman at a residence three blocks from where she was abducted. She was taken to a Waco, Texas hospital and was treated and released.

The suspect reportedly had stolen his roommate’s pickup truck and was spotted a short time later and was arrested and taken into custody.

Forty-four-year-old Timothy Maurice Smith of Morgan, Texas is charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and is being held in lieu of $120,000 bond.

Real estate agents need to be very careful in hosting open houses, visiting vacant properties and meeting men without an associate present.

The Business At Hand :: Jersey Shore Business Journal

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," silly old me!

Julian's drawing

[edit] Who was Lucy?

Reference to drugs and the title of the song

Another Real Estate Agent Assaulted