Autumn 1968 (part 4)

This is part 4 of the story of the girls from New York who went to London and met Paul and the rest of guys during the Autumn of 1968.   Before anyone asks, this is part 4.    I do not have part 3 at this time, so I skipped ahead to part 4.   Hopefully one day I will get part 3.  

This story was written by JoAnn DeFilippe and Linda Rabe.  It was first published in McC Publications and was republished (where I found it) in issue # 20 of the McCartney Observer.   Fans of Pattie Boyd will enjoy this one!

The Autumn of ’68 (Part 4)

Being it was Monday we went to the bank and cashed our traveler’s check in so we could get to Esher and make sure we had enough money in case we got lost.  Then off we went to the station to catch our train.  It was an ice ride out and we hoping that George would be there.  When we got off at Esher we didn’t even know how to get out of the station let alone getting to George’s.  So when we finally did get out we asked some young guy if he knew where George Harrison lived.  He said, “Yes.  I think he lives over that way.” (Pointing to the left).  We said thanks and started off in the direction we were told.  When we came to some little estates we asked some lady who was working in her garden if she knew where Claremont Drive was; she said, “Not off hand, who are you looking for?”  She said a George Harrison.  She said she’d look in the phone book.  We stood outside and looked at each other and said she ain’t going to find him.  When she came out she said she found a Jeffery Harrison.  We told her that wasn’t him, she would call her friend and told us to come in for a minute.  She really had a nice little home.  When she got off the phone she said her friend said to take the bus down the road to Fairmont Estate and then ask somewhere there.  We thanked her and proceeded on to the bus stop.  When the bus finally came we got on and told him where we wanted to go and then asked him if he knew where Claremont Drive was.  He said no and stopped the bus and asked all the people if they knew.  Of course, no one did.  So he let us off at Fairmont Estate and we walked around for close to 2 hours; when we saw a couple of women and asked them if they knew and they didn’t know either.  They told us to right the bell of some house that those people might know.  So we went up to the front and came to the back door but no one was home.   As we came down the little path from the house a little bus which seats about 12 was coming up the road towards us.  We flagged him down figuring that maybe he would know.  He said he was going up that way, to hop in and he’d give us a lift.   So we climbed in, quite exhausted, for a half hour ride to Claremont Drive.   If it wasn’t for that man we probably would never have found that bungalow.  As we were walking through Claremont Drive nothing seemed right until we spotted a great huge tall brick wall.   We said, “That’s got to be it, who else would have a 14 foot wall?”  

Now all we had to do was find the driveway that led up to it.  We finally found one that we thought might be it and as we walked up the driveway some man yelled out, “they’re not home!”  We said something to him and kept on walking.  After all we went through to get this far we weren’t going to let one man stop us.  When we got to the end of the driveway to go into the yard we couldn’t believe our eyes.  It was like walking into another world which had no problems or time for hatred, it was just like a fairyland, the whole atmosphere in there just did something to you to just look at it.  We walked around looking in the windows and couldn’t believe what we saw.  When we heard a voice talking we figured someone was on the phone.  Mary went a little further around the back of the house to see if she could see who was on the phone.  She came back and said it was Pattie.  So we went over and rang and bell and the maid came and answered the door.   We asked if George was home and she said no but Pattie was and “Would you like to speak to her?  She’s on the phone right now if you would like to wait, but please don’t go snooping around.”  We said that we wouldn’t (she didn’t know we already did).  After about 5 minutes Pattie came to the door.  She looked fantastic.  She had a short blonde wig on and had on a very short mini-skirt and orange top with a bong black vest with orange trim.  We asked her if she had cut her hair and she said “no, it was only a wig.”  

Joann and Pattie

Mary and Sue were telling her about an experience they had at EMI and Pattie was really interested and kept laughing because it was funny.  We wanted Pattie as Mary told the story and Pattie really listened and not with a phony type interest like some people may think.  We then asked her where George was and she said he was in London, that they were going to record that night at EMI and get there about 7:00.  We said we had been hanging around Paul’s house and that tonight we knew where we were going and she just laughed.  She asked us where we had come from and we said New York, she said no I mean did you come from London?  We said yes and we had a hard time finding the house.  She said if we got the right bus it should leave you at the Claremont Drive entrance.  We asked her if she liked New York when she was there and she said yes but she wouldn’t’ want to live there, then we laughed.   We talked about a few other things that were trivial and asked “Pattie, how do we get out of here?”  She said go out to Claremont Drive and there’s a bus that stops right across the street.  We said thank you and goodbye to her.  When we got out there and got on the bus, we realized how easy it was when you know what bus to take, after all it took us over 2 hours to get there and only around 15 minutes to get back to the station!

We went back to the hotel to eat and had to get back to EMI before 7:00 that night to see the boys go in.  When we got there we were standing on one side of the entrance and all the English girls were on the other side when a station wagon pulled up and Mal Evans got out.  He probably needed more room and had to get someone to move their car so his could get in.  Paul just sat there while an English guy took his picture and he then said, “Leave me alone.”  He then looked over to us and his face sort of lit up and he smiled and waved, so we waved back.  Mal got in and pulled the car in and the English kids gave us dirty looks and if looks could kill, we’d be dead.   We watched the girls crowd around him as he made his way into EMI and left to go home because we felt uncomfortable with those English girls.

The next night we went back to EMI where the boys were recording the White Album.  We had a bottle of wine.  As we were standing out in the rain and drinking the wine, the English “goodies” were trying to encourage us to start a fight with Linda Eastman.  We were standing there so long and were so wet and tired and a little smashed we figured we’d better go home before we really did start a fight with Linda and Paul would probably be there.

Just before we were ready to leave, John and Yoko came out.  We were standing around the car and as John was coming through he kept saying, “Beep!  Beep!”  We kept telling Sue to give John the present she had for him but she couldn’t.  She just stood there staring at him.  He then got in the car after Yoko and left.  We then decided we had better leave for real.