london dreamin'

Summer was approaching quickly, and without jimmy’s knowledge, his parents had made plans. Normally, jimmy liked to hang out during the summer—head to the beach a couple weekends, spend a lot of time at the pool, maybe start a band….what he didn’t know but would soon find out is that he would be spending this summer in London in the house of his aunt Margaret. His parents had manufactured their own little exchange program. Jimmy to London and his cousin cecil was going to come live with his parents.When they finally told him in may, he objected. They said it would be a good experience for him to live in another culture. He agreed with that part, he said, but why not send him to mexico or china where he could at least learn another language. They told him that they agreed, but he did not have an aunt living in china or mexico so he was going to England. His ticket was already paid for, it was a done deal, so start thinking about what you’re going to pack and break it your friends and tell them to hang out with cecil as a favor to you.

His departure arrived more quickly than he was prepared and before he knew it, he was living in a room of aunt margaret’s flat. It didn’t take long for the culture shock to hit. His first morning, he woke and went to the breakfast table to find eggs an baked beans on his plate. He hated beans. He was about to protest when he saw aunt margaret’s watching over him with a big smile on her face. He realized that his frosted flake days had come to an end, but he still needed food. He ate the eggs and aunt Margaret brought him some toast and jam. He imagined cecil’s reaction to a bowl of frosted flakes.

He met some of cecil’s friends. They were actually pretty cool. They listened to good music and played a lot of soccer (football). There were a lot of girls in the neighborhood and they loved his “accent.” His mom and dad probably wouldn’t be too happy if they knew I had my firs beer that summer. To this day, Jimmy drinks his beer at room temperature..

Apparently, the big part of the summer in England was for all the guys to go to a boys camp. He was going too, then he was headed home. Camp was three weeks long and consisted mainly of football and rugby during the day, and guiness during the night. The thing that everybody was excited about was a fashion type show in the last week. It sounded like a dog show to Jimmy—everybody dressing fancy and marching around on some field. Jimmy had other plans. He started to rally his troops early.

He got some of his best mates gathered on a field and preached to them, “we need to make this show our own. Instead of prancing around like a bunch of pansies, we strut like we own the place. I’m going to shave my head and wear black boots and an American flag shirt. I’m not saying that’s what you should wear. I’m saying don’t wear the cardigans and loafers they’ve laid out for you. Wear what you want to wear. O, we need to take over the sound system. I don’t want to walk in to some pansy classical tune, I want to run into Helter Skelter, a song that you guys introduced me to. He could tell they were excited, but a little scared too. Its never easy to kick tradition in the bollocks. But they all agreed and started to prepare for the big day.

Jimmy couldn’t find clippers in any of the local stores, so he goy a pair of scissors and a few disposable razors. He was going to need his new friends’ help to get a clean cut. He also bought a red bandana so he could reveal his new haircut when he was ready. Everybody chose a song—jimmy took helter skelter like he said he would. His best mate Jackie chose “jumpin jack flash.” Bobby went all American with “purple haze.”which went perfectly with the purple suit he found at a consignment shop.

The day came and we were all nervous. I felt like we were essentially dumping tea in the harbor. My shave job looked better than I had expected. We stood together off stage when the lights came up. The sound system kicked in and Helter Skelter came first…..

When I get to the bottom

I go back to the top of the slide

I get to the top I go for a ride

I get to the bottom and I see you again.

I turned and gave my new friends a big smile as I strut onto stage and ripped my bandana from my head. Much to my surprise, the crowd went wild, screaming as if the Beatles were on stage with me. I jumped up on a table and pointed at the crowd. Then I pointed backstage just as Jackie came hopping out to to jumpin jack flash, he’s a gas gas gassss.

Jimmy returned to the states, but he’ll never forget that summer in London. No one would ever let him. He became legend in his family. Every family reunion he went to, the story of the fashion show came up