It’s Sunday night, Feb. 9, 1964. A family is gathered around the television because missing “The Ed Sullivan Show” would be social suicide. A UK group is singing; they go by a funny name and have funky hair. They’re The Beatles.
Writer, blogger and Peoria native, Marty Wombacher lived through that moment and pieced his childhood in the 60s through monologue. The stories of record players, love and drugs were brought to campus at the Marty Theatre on Wednesday evening. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute hosted the event as a part of their OLLI Originals.
Wombacher socialized with guests before the show. OLLI student Maggie Nelson told Wombacher how friends felt when he left for New York, “Everyone was so sad when you took off. They said ‘Peoria can’t contain a talent like that.’”
Guests were in for a night of comedy and nostalgia for a few hours in a first-hand experience monologue, accompanied by a live band.
As Beatles music blared, an attendee pointed up to the speaker playing “Hey Jude” and said, ‘This is your song,’ to a friend. Another came dressed with a vintage vest from the decade. It was matched with a handmade flower headband from San Francisco.
“We do a lot of interviews [and] a lot of lectures,” said Continuing Education coordinator Catherine Lawless. “Wambacher tried this monologue out, rented out the Apollo theatre. He came to us and asked, ‘How do I do this on campus?’”
Lawless continued to explain how this was a match for OLLI students.
“It seemed to fit with what we do,” Lawless said. “Our OLLI [students] are up for any learning experience.”
Those attending might have had their own experiences of the decade of hippies and peace. Record collectors, those remembering Vietnam and the like reminisced with each other over coffee and cookies.
“The culture [is significant],” Wombacher said. “The way it changed music, and how it happened without the internet. You saw stuff in real time. Anticipation was a big thing.”
In one point, Wombacher said music today is just not the same as it used to be.
“I hate to sound like an old man, but you had to wait months for an album,” Wombacher said. “You couldn’t find it anywhere right away like on YouTube,” Wombacher said. “I don’t see moments, like Sgt. Pepper, and thought ‘I never heard anything like this.’”
Wombacher started with how the 60s started for him. His Catholic teacher said that having “Beatle bangs” was a sin. After a quick hair experiment in the bathroom later, Wombacher had the cursed “Beatle bangs,” marking an act of resistance just like the hippies at the time.
“I was living through everything [Wombacher] talked about,” said OLLI student Christine Becker. “We had good music, and local music, too. It was a good time to be around [Peoria], it’s still a good time to be around here.”
The crowd laughed at the struggles of having no record player in sight to play a new record, card trading and wanting to do all the drugs that artists were taking. Vietnam protests and the open fire on Kent State University students were sorrowful events, but gave further insight into the decade.
The rise and fall of the hippies was a significant moment for Wombacher who dreams of a peace-loving government. Wombacher also quoted author Hunter Thompson, who compared the decade to a cresting wave that rolled back into the ocean.
After baskets of retro candies and copies of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band were raffled off, Wombacher thanked everyone for participating. By doing his show, he was able to keep the 60s alive for another day.
