Another fan meets Paul at Cavendish in 1977

Here is another fan story from the November 197 7 issue of "The Write Thing." This one is written by Carol Sikkema of Minneapolis, MN who met Paul at his London home on June 28, 1977.

Fan “celebrated” Paul’s June birthday by chalking their greetings, sentiments, and messages (and some of the usual anti-Linda slander) all over Paul’s front gates. Member John Awarski (Cleveland) was with him a few days afterwards and Paul casually pointed out the “decorations”, ruefully remarking “I should have waited til after my birthday to paint the gates.”

A few days later my friend and local member Carol Sikkema was visiting London and gave this report: (editor, Barb Fenick)

..We went in and out of London a few times on our trip, but we didn’t get the chance to really relax and look around until June 28^th. I took off for Paul’s house armed with my camera and naturally wearing my Wings T-shirt. I didn’t feel very hopeful about getting a glimpse of Paul tho, especially after meeting the man who runs the tobacco-cosmetics etc. stand at the Underground Station nearest their house. He informed me that Linda bought all her cosmetics there and he hadn’t seen either Paul or Linda for quite some time. He was glad to direct me to the house, anyway (Probably does it several times a week!)

There were two guys with cameras and autograph books waiting across the street from the house. I joined them for a minute to take my picture. They were Philip and Ian from Portsmouth, England – members of the Wings fan club there. Every now and then one of us would catch a glimpse of Rose in the window, and we could hear the kids playing in the yard, so we know Paul was probably home, but we were sure he would be staying inside. The idea of going up to the gate and ringing the buzzer was too nervy to even consider. Standing by the wall I could see “Happy birthday, Paul” chalked all over.

Suddenly Philip said, “The door’s open and I can see Joe English and Paul coming out!” Sure enough, they came out and all of a sudden there was Pauli opening the tall gate for Joe’s car to leave. He gave us a friendly smile as we rushed up and agreed to come out in a minute for some pictures. We couldn’t believe our good luck!

After Joe drove off Paul came out and we started taking pictures like mad. He threw himself back into a cute pose for me as I stuck my camera practically into his face. I found myself thanking him repeatedly for being so nice to let us have a minute. He smiled politely at me and asked us where we were from. The guys said “Portsmouth,” and when he looked at me I threw open my sweater like some sort of Burlesque queen and yelled, “Minneapolis,” modeling my T-shirt for him . (It’s hard to believe later the things you do at times like that!)

Paul was wearing black pants and a dark green hooded sweatshirt. He looked really fantastic, handsome, slender and healthy and seemed to be in a good mood, happy to stand around and talk to us.

Linda was meanwhile slowly backing out of the gate in their dark green Rolls. She was smiling at us and gave us a friendly wave as Paul went to the gate to tell Mary to stay inside with her bicycle. Linda was wearing a loose brown patterned maternity dress.

Then a girl walking from down the street arrived at our little group and just breezed right though as though we weren’t even there. Paul looked after her and pointed, saying “you can’t have her autograph!”

With that he got into the passenger seat of the car after reminding us (but nicely) that we maybe we shouldn’t “hang around” after they left. I’m sure his neighbors do get a little tired of constant groups in the neighborhood. They drove away, both waving and tooted the horn.

Well, we bounced all the way down the street, laughing and trying to recall all that we’d said. After a brief stop at Emi studios where Philip kindly took some pictures for me, we went back to the Underground. I practically knocked the tobacconist down with my “Guess what?!”

I’ll never forget how nice Paul and Linda were and how sweet they were to take a little time for us. They are both the greatest!