Autumn 1968

This is a very nice story that was publish in the fanzine "McCartney's Lover and Friends" which was created by our very own beautiful Marie Lacey in January 1973.  It is found in issue #1.   This is one of the best McCartney fan stories I have read in awhile.   These girls must have had a tape recorder to recall what was said in such detail or they went back to their hotel and wrote down word for word everything that was said.  It was written by Linda Rabe and JoAnn DeFilippe who were from New York.   I found one of the photos that was copied in the fanzine in my files but the other one I had to scan of photo copy and it didn't turn out that great.   If anyone has the photo of Paul with the three girls, it would be so awesome to see.   Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Carol, Linda, Paul and JoAnn

In the Autumn of 1968

Linda Rabe & JoAnn Defilippe

On our first day in London, we took the underground tube to St. John’s Wood, and by some miracle we walked in the right direction and found ourselves in front of the street sign which read, “Cavendish Avenue.”  Looking down the block, we saw a mob of girls standing outside THE HOUSE!  We walked up and they told us that they were waiting for Paul to come out and sign autographs.  As we were standing out there, we heard a noise inside the gate and crossed the street so that we could see over the wall.  There, in the doorway, stood Paul.  He looked over and waved and made signs with his hands which seemed to mean, “Wait, one minute, ok?”  Two girls came out of the yard and went around to the stores with Martha and Eddie.  We stayed around until the cops came and then decided to go back to the hotel and eat. 

  We went back the next night and two girls from Scotland told us that he was not home.  We all decided to go for a drink, and then decided to go back to Paul’s house, even though it was after midnight.  When we arrived there, the gates were wide open, and there was a white car in the yard.  One of the Scottish girls told us that it belonged to Paul’s friend, Ivan Vaughn.  She went into the garage and came out with a pair of Paul’s overalls that had a name of a petrol station on it.  We tried to get the buttons off, but it was quite difficult as they were rubber.  Feeling guilty, we decided to put them back.  We all creeped further into the yard, and JoAnn went up the steps to try and peek into the front window.  Then, Camena made a noise in the garage as she was trying to put the overalls back, and we all flew out of the yard in  a bit of a hurry. 

 Two minutes later, a car came speeding up the block, and a green mini appeared in front of us.  Paul was in the car with Miss Eastman (at the time, we didn’t know who she was).  Since we weren’t able to think straight, all we could say was “Hi Paul,” he looked at us and said, “Hi luv”.  A light went on in the car, and he said something to her.  EH got out of the car and started walking over towards us.  She turned and said in a long drawn out nasal voice, “come on, Martha!”  Even Paul looked at her with a confused look on his face.  Trying to remain calm, we told him that we were from New York  and asked if we could talk to him for a minute.  He said sure.  

JoAnn:  Can I take a picture with you?

Paul:  Sure, come over here.

Carol:  Can we take a picture with you?

Paul:  Yeah

We gave the camera to Camena so she could take the picture of us with him. (see photo)  Carol went over and took his arm and Joann walked over to him and slipped her hand through his left arm.  Joann’s hands being cold, found a nice warm spot.  Paul said, “no luv, like this.”  He took JoAnn’s hand and put it over his arm.  He said “Ohhhh” and started to rub her hand to make it warm.  Being that Paul only had two arms Linda (fellow fan from the U.S. not Linda Eastman) didn’t know where to stand.

Linda:  Where do I stand?

Carol:  Sit on the Ground.

Paul:  No, stand here.  (Point in front of himself) As Linda stood in front of him he put his hands on her shoulders.  Swaying back and forth he looked up to the sky and said, “ohh there’s a moon out tonight” and sang “I only have yes for you.”  As we all looked up at him we gave him looks as if to say “forget it, you can’t sing.”  We were forgetting who he was and that hey Jude was then at #1. 

 Camena went to take the picture and the flash wouldn’t go off, and trying a second time, still no luck.  JoAnn said “Oh the flash won’t go off!”  Paul said, “Don’t worry, it will.”  As Linda was standing in front of him, she could feel his body pressing forward and his knees bending into hers.  The third time the flash finally went off.

Paul:  The family portrait taken right after the football game.  We really beat them at that one, didn’t we?  What part of New York are you from – Brooklyn?

We told him what part, and he said that he had never heard of it.  Little does he know that the location just happened to be the same places were Kennedy Airport is and Shea Stadium.

JoAnn:  We went to a club tonight, and couldn’t get in, you had to be a member.

Paul:  What club was that?

JoAnn:  The Speakeasy Club.

Paul:  Couldn’t be.

JoAnn:  It was.

Paul:  But it couldn’t be.

JoAnn:  don’t tell me, I was there, and I saw the sign and it said “Speakeasy.”

Paul:  But you don’t understand, it burnt to the ground.  There’s nothing left.  You have to be an angel to get in.

JoAnn:  Girls, tell him what the name of the club was.

Linda: Blaiser’s Speakeasy

Paul:  Oh yeah, I know the one.  It’s different.  There are a few clubs that you have to be a member to in.  There’s a good one call The Bag.”

Us:  The Bag?

Paul:  Yeah, the Bag O’Nails – you don’t’ have to be a member to get in and it’s cheap.

Linda:  Is it nice?

Paul:  Yeah, but it’s ‘ruff (makes a fist and squints his nose)

Linda:  Thanks a lot!

Paul:  Yeah, but it’s a good club.

JoAnn:  Where is it?

Paul:  Near Regent Street

Joann: Oh, Regent Street.  Where’s that?

Paul:  Near Carnaby Street.

Us:  Oh…Carnaby Street.

Paul:  (making a funny gesture) Oh Carnaby Street!  We’ll just have to go there, and after that we’ll just have to go to the Palace!

Linda:  Did you know that we had a Magical Mystery Tour of our own? (A bus load of girls had gone on a ride around NY, and then up to Bear Mountain, NY)

Paul (looking pathetic) No.  Nobody told me.  Did you know where you were going?

Linda:  Yeah, we had to hire a bus to Bear Mountin.

JoAnn:  you know Mr. Weiss?

Paul:  Yeah (smiling)

JoAnn:  We’re the girls who gave Mr. Weiss the pictures of John’s car, and of a convention we had.  Did you see them when you were there?

Paul:  Yeah, you’re the girls, those were your pictures?

All of a sudden a little brown and black Yorkshire terrier appeared.

JoAnn:  Hi Eddie!

Linda:  Edgar!

Paul:  Eddie

JoAnn:  Can I pick him up?

Paul:  Sure

JoAnn:  Does he…

Paul:  No, he doesn’t bite.  He just might try and get down.

JoAnn was talking and playing with Eddie and he didn’t get down.  Paul came over and took Eddie’s head in his hands (JoAnn’s hair was in Paul’s fingers) and ruffled his fur and kissed him on the mouth.  Martha was walking around and we asked him if Martha and Eddie fought, and he said that they didn’t.

JoAnn:  Can I have your autograph?

Paul: Sure

JoAnn:  My name is JoAnn. As she gave him a pen and he was signing it.  He shook his head yes, and she said could you please write that down.  He said “Oh JoAnn, Joann, I thought you were telling me what your name was. Hi JoAnn, I’m Paul. But that’s silly, you know I’m Paul.   Then Linda said her name to put on the autograph, and Paul just gave her a strange look, and we didn’t know why.  Later, we found out why.

Linda:  Can I take a picture of you and Eddie?

Paul:  Yeah, wait a minute.

He had to pick Eddie up and then he stood there so tall and proud.  And the flash wouldn’t’ go off again.  So Paul decided he was going to fix that problem and just pulled the flash cube off and tried top push another one on, but it still didn’t work.  So, we tried switching the flash cubes again, and Paul posed again, and we finally got the picture (see photo)  He then put Eddie down and he bent down and made noises of a dog barking and Eddie looked at Paul moving his head from side and side and we all went “ahhh.”

Linda:  We have a present for you, but we didn’t bring it with us because we didn’t know we were going to see you.

Paul:  Come back tomorrow.  It’s better to come at night, because during the day I don’t answer the bell.  I change moods rapidly.  He started to shut one gate and Linda went over to him and whispered in his ear, while his hair tickled her nose, “can I kiss you goodnight?”

Paul:  No, not here.

As Linda was backing up, he still held her hand as we said goodnight to him again and told him to say hello to the other boys for us.  Back at the hotel, we had talked about what happened, but Linda couldn’t put into words how it felt when Paul pressed against her. 

 Even though Paul had told us to come back at night, we decided to go around to his house that afternoon to see what was going on.  It’s so hard to stay away.  As usual, there were a lot of girls there and they were asking us questions about what time Paul had come home the night before (don’t know how they found out). 

 While we were there, Miss Eastman had come out to go around to the store.  With her nose high in the air, she just passed everyone right by without a glance.  A half hour later the groceries arrived and they rang the bell which Paul answered and they told him his groceries were here and he said OK and sent Rosie out to collect them.  After a while, a meat truck came and Rosie came out to open the gates for the truck to pull in the yard and send in the meat.  When the groceries had arrived we looked in the box and then stuck in a few notes that our friends from New York had given us to give him.  We were peeking through the crack in the gate and were taking turns standing on the milk crate looking over the wall.  We saw Paul come bopping down the stairs in the house and he had on a yellow shirt and dark trousers. 

  Later in the afternoon, Ivan came and rang the bell which Paul wouldn’t’ answer.  Therefore, Ivan decided to climb the gate, he took a few steps backwards and jumped over the gate (a trick John use to pull).  About an hour later, Paul came rushing out of the house and we ran into the yard next door (#9) to try and see what he was doing. 

We saw him get into his Mini and we went back to his gate.  Ivan opened the gates and Paul pulled out making noises like a racing car.  Martha was in the back seat and Paul had Eddie on his lap.  We knew that he was taking them up to Regents Park as he had done very day then.  Everyone started to snap pictures.  JoAnn took a picture of him and the flash was very bright and hurt his eyes and Paul went “ooh!”  JoAnn felt guilty and wanted to apologize.  When we went back that night, JoAnn asked Linda to remind her. 

  Linda had looked and Paul and pointed to the camera and he nodded that it was ok to take a picture.  Paul waited for Miss Eastman and Ivan to get into the car and then he pulled off.  We decided not to wait around until he came back and went home.  We came back at 11 pm to give Paul his present.  When we arrived there, the gates were closed and we walked over to EMI.  On our way back to Paul’s we saw tow English girls (Anne and Suzanne) standing there.  The gates were open and Paul was standing there with Eddie in his arms and talking to Ivan, who was seated in the car with Miss Eastman next to him.  As Ivan pulled out, we started to walk over to Paul and Ivan said “Goodnight” and we made sure that we said Goodnight to him and we waved.  They pulled off down the block and we stood there with Mr. McCartney himself and again he was making his dog noises.  

Paul:  Did you meet Eddie?  Oh yeah, you met Eddie last night.  Then he said to Carol, “You didn’t meet Eddie.”

Carol:  I did too.

Paul:  Oh, you were here last night?  You look different.

JoAnn to Carol:  Oh, you had your hair back last night and tonight you have it down.

Paul:  Oh, you let your hair down so you could swing (swaying his hips from side to side.)  We were standing in front of him and we were watching him as he put his yellow shirt into his trousers with a silly grin on his face. We looked down to see his orange socks.  He was standing directly in front of a puddle and  he curled his toes up and went “ekkk!”  All of a sudden there was a noise from the top of the wall and Paul said, “shhh! Do you hear that noise?”  He moved closer towards us.

Paul:  Is that one of the fans up there?  Oh no.  It’s that tom cat again.  He scared us last night.  Oh (he looks at the 2 English girls) – have you met these three girls?  These three girls are from New York and they’re alright.

Paul to us:  These two girls are from Hamstead and they’re alright too.

Suzanne to us:  You know you’re alright, he said you’re alright, so that means you’re alright.

Paul stood there smiling with his head down.

Linda:  Can we take a picture?

Paul:  Yes sure. 

He was still talking, but we didn’t know what he was talking about, and we were trying to get the cameras out.

Paul:  come on girls, you’re slow (hitting JoAnn on the hand) Every night when we were small my brother and I used to get a bisquit before we went to bed, and we used to nibble on it very very slowly (with his hand up to his mouth to imitate) to stall for time.  By the way, where did you girls go today?

JoAnn:  We were here all day.

Paul:  You were here all day?!

Linda:  Yeah, we had nothing better to do (jokingly)

As we were getting ready to take the picture Paul said, “Never mind, I’m not in the mood now.  You have to be in a mood to take pictures.”  Meanwhile Eddie kept running around.

Linda:  Does Eddie run in the street?

Paul:  Yes, he does, sometimes. 

And with that Eddie ran into the street.  All Paul had to do was whistle and Eddie came running back.  It didn’t take him long to get back into the street though.  Paul was still talking and talking and suddenly a car came speeding down the black and Paul turned around and called “Eddie.”  Eddie panicked and didn’t know which way to turn.  Thank God the car stopped in time.  Paul turned around and had his hand over his heart.  “I shouldn’t have called him like that because I scared him and he probably would have made it across the street ok.  It’s the same as if a person was crossing the street and a car was coming the person would have noticed the car, but if someone had yelled out the person would have panicked.”

JoAnn:  You’re smart.

The guy that almost hit Eddie was still sitting there in his car, smiling and watching.  Again forgetting who we were with, we said, “Who’s that guy staring at?”  Paul put his head down.

Linda to JoAnn:  You wanted to apologize.

JoAnn:  Oh yeah, I have to apologize.

Paul:  Apologize?  What for?

As JoAnn looked up into his eyes she noticed oen of his veins in the left eye and it left a strange effect on her and she couldn’t say what.

Paul:  So, where’s my present?

Linda:  First we have a couple notes from our friends.

We gave them to him and he said in a pathetic voice, “Is this my present?”

Linda:  No stupid (she said this innocently). 

Paul opened the notes and started to read, but he couldn’t as it was too dark and he said he’d finish reading them inside, and put them in his pocket.  Linda then took out the bottle of wine, slowly, to give him.  He popped her in the chest and said, “Hurry up!”  His eyes just lite up when he saw that bottle.  He held it in his hand and put his arm up in the air and said, “Let’s celebrate!”  He said, “Who wants the first swig?”  We told him he should have some first because it was his bottle.  He started to tear the stuff off the top and dropped it on the ground.  He said to Linda, “Want some?” and she said, “No thank you, I don’t like wine.”  He then took a great big gulp and made a face and shook his head in pleasure and said, “Good stuff, this American wine.” He then went to pass the bottle and Linda suddenly decided she liked wine and took the bottle from him.  She was putting it up to her mouth and he pushed it, hitting her front teeth with the bottle as she drank it.  Linda then gave the bottle to JoAnn and when she was drinking it Paul kept staring at her and the bottle made a funny noise when she took it away from her mouth and the wine swished out of the bottle.  The other girls had a swig and gave the bottle back to Paul.

Paul:  Oh, when I used to work in the mill they used to wake me for my meals, but that was a long time ago, when I was 55.

Suzanne:  Now you’re 80.

Paul:  And these tin-pan groups today, they don’t make music, just noise.

Suzanne:  Like the Beatles.

Paul:  oh them…

Paul started to go towards the gates and close them and he said “Hey well, I’ll see you anyway.  Goodnight.”

We said goodnight and went to get a taxi home.