Пенсионер из Калифорнии издал книгу о встрече с Битлз в парковке отеля

Two years ago, longtime elementary school teacher and writer Tony Pitre penned a picture book inspired by a drawing his now teenage grandson had done when he was just 4. “Frankie’s First Halloween” — about a friendly ghost who loved the holiday — was published in 2024 by The Press at Cal Poly Humboldt. Now Pitre, who recently retired, has self-published a second book. “The Fab Four” grew out of one of Pitre’s childhood memories of the Beatles. “My new book was inspired by an experience I had when I was a teenager,” Pitre said. “I grew up in Palo Alto and in (August 1965), the Beatles stayed at the fanciest hotel in Palo Alto, the Cabana, while they were performing … at the Cow Palace (in Daly City). “I was one of hundreds upon hundreds of teenagers who assembled in the Cabana parking lot waiting and hoping for a sight of the Beatles. It was an event that was very commonplace to the Beatles, but for us, it was tremendously exciting at the time and remains for many an enduring nostalgic memory,” he noted. A few years ago, Pitre – who calls himself a “very basic piano player” – says the idea of blending “sheet music” and “bed sheets” within a story about the Beatles kept running through his mind. “I thought there could be a story in that overlap of terms that involved the Beatles staying in a hotel in my town,” he said. “The rest was my imagination, plus a lot of actual facts about the Beatles’ stay in Palo Alto I learned from my research,” said Pitre. “The teens’ plan is to take some bed sheets off the hotel beds and sell them to the hundreds of kids out in the parking lot, which really happened where the Beatles stayed,” he said. “Meeting the Beatles is never discussed by them. Things do happen that I don’t want to give away though that are far beyond what they ever dreamed would happen.” Pitre says his new book can be enjoyed by folks of all ages and interests. “I think my story will appeal not only to teenagers, as they are the main characters and they have an amazing experience, but anyone who is a fan of the ’60s (a lot of people), or who lived through the ’60s (even more people) or who are fans of the Beatles themselves (even more people). There is some baseball in it too, and a little teenage romance as well,” he said. “The Fab Four” is available at The Booklegger in Old Town Eureka and Blake’s Books in McKinleyville. It’ll soon be on local library shelves, too, Pitre said. “My story is kind of a love letter to the ’60s. It was an exciting, fun time to be a teenager,” he said. Pitre is now focusing on new writing projects. “My next three I hope will be a picture book titled ‘Parade!,’ a beginning chapter book called ‘The Seed’ and a novel titled “The American Life of Freeman Jones,’” he said.