A Scrapbook of Memories

Welcome back to another blogpost. Similarly to my last post, this post will examine looking at past events through different lenses. As you probably remember, these lenses are Historical Significance, Evidence and Interpretation, Continuity and Change, Cause and Consequence, Historical Perspective, and Ethical Judgement. However, instead of applying these lenses to famous historical events, they will be applied to things that have happened in my life that I have deemed significant. Ranging from my birth to an event that occurred last week, these stories all mean something to me for different reasons:

This is a book that I made including photos that tell the stories of the four events. For more clarity, read the descriptions that I have written about the event while looking at the photos.

The first significant event is my birth. I was born on September 17th, 2000 at the Children’s Hospital, surrounded by myparents and a select group of family members. Luckily, everything went smoothly and after not too long (22 minutes after my birth), my mother was holding not just me but my twin sister as well. This event is not only significant for me, but also for my family, since I was not only my parents’ first child but my grandparents’ first grandchild as well. It is when my parents stopped being normal adults and started being parents. It is obviously a milestone for me as it is when my life began. The evidence I have pertaining to my birth lies in the stories I have been told about it. I have heard accounts from different family members all describing the sequence of events that occurred. I also have access to photos from that day and I can always check my birth certificate for more information. I can’t speak to what changed in my life when I was born (since nothing happened before my birth), but I can speak to the changes in my parents’ lives. From that day on, they were always thinking about me and my sister, and that continues today. Since the time I was born my parents have had not their own, but my best interests at heart and for that I am truly grateful. The consequences of my birth were me beginning my life and my parents beginning their journey as parents.

The next significant event is when I learned to ride a bike. Correction- when I learned to ride a bike without training wheels. I don’t have a very good memory of this event as I was quite young, but as I remember the story is as follows: I always rode my bike with training wheels even though I probably could have learned to ride without them. Then one day, my friend invited me to his birthday party, which just so happened to be a biking party. Now I really wanted this cool new bike helmet, but it was a helmet meant for pretty serious mountain bikers. So my parents told me that they would only buy me the helmet if I finally took my training wheels off. Reluctantly, I agreed and without much trouble began riding my bike without the training wheels on. I think that I knew deep down that I didn’t really need the training wheels but they were a sort of security blanket for me and I felt comfortable with them on. This event was significant for me as it showed me that sometimes we have to go outside our comfort zone to achieve a goal. The evidence of this event lies in my own memories of what happened. It also didn’t just change the way that I rode my bike but changed the way I thought about advancing in life. We cannot get complacent and must take risks in order to “remove our training wheels”. The consequences of this event were me becoming able to ride trails and also receiving the snazzy helmet that I had my heart set on.

To gain a different perspective of this event, I interviewed my mom who was right there beside me when I learned to bike:

Although the main points of our stories are the same, my mom has a slightly different recollection of the event than I did. For one, I had no idea that before that time, I had been riding my bike with the training wheels barely touching the ground, rendering them useless. In other words I had already been biking without them, which would have made me less nervous when I was going for what I thought was my first ride without them. But my mom also remembered that I didn’t know that I could do it which isn’t quite true. I actually knew deep down that I could do it, I just wasn’t very confident. These differences illustrate that different perspectives can change the facts of a story. Neither me nor my mother were lying, yet our stories were different. This proves how important it is to examine a past event from all angles and perspectives.

The third event I chose was my first trip to California when I was 7. This was quite significant for me since it was my first time travelling any farther than Portland, and the first memory I have of travelling at all. It was also my first time on a train, as well as my first time on a plane. We did many exciting things on the trip: went to the beach where I tried to surf and boogie board, spent a few days at Disneyland, went to the La Brea Tar Pits, the Getty Museum, and the Venice Beach Boardwalk. The evidence of this trip is my memories as well as the countless photos that my mom took throughout the trip. This trip changed my world view, it showed me that there was a much larger would waiting to be explored and that the world was a lot larger than my small community. The consequences of this trip were my views on Los Angeles and California as a whole. It went from a place that I didn’t know much about to a place that I wanted to go back to. In fact, I loved California so much that I have traveled back there with my family five times since my first trip when I was 7.

The last event I will talk about occurred only a week ago, but is extremely significant none the less. Last Thursday was seniors recognition night for my high school basketball team. This event was very important to me as it marks the final stretch of my basketball career- there are only a handful of games left. It was very nice to receive recognition for all the hard work I’ve put in over the years. The evidence for this event was captured in my memory and the memories of all the fans who attended the game. There were also many photos taken which could serve as primary sources. This event marks a serious change in my life, the end of my high school basketball career. It serves as the conclusion of not only my 5 years of high school basketball, but my 5 years of club ball as well. I have been playing basketball for 8 years and the end of my competitive career of this sport will be a major change in my life. As for consequences, they are still to be determined as the event occurred less than a week ago.

Well, those are 4 significant events in my life. Through the past few weeks I have really learned that history is not a list of facts, rather it is a multitude of perspectives. Facts can change depending on what lenses you look at an event from. The closest we can get to finding out what actually happened is when we consider all perspectives, and even still, there are many events where the truth is left open for debate.

A Day in the Life: Beatlemania Through Historical Lenses

Recently we have begun History 12 in PLP. Our first assignment involved studying different historical lenses. These were Historical Significance, Evidence and Interpretation, Continuity and Change, Cause and Consequence, Historical Perspective, and Ethical Judgement.

We spilt up into groups and each presented to the class, teaching them about a specific lens. I teamed up with Tom, Alanah, and Michael Sutherland and presented about historical perspective. This is the script we used:

We also had to create a visual demonstrating all 6 lenses. This is a flow chart I created outlining the different historical lenses, what they mean, the steps to take in order to view events through these lenses, and the relevancy of the different lenses:

Click to Enlarge

Next we were tasked with applying theses lenses to an important 20th century event. I tried to be a bit creative with my choice and ended up choosing Beatlemania, and more specifically, the Beatles’ 1964 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Beatlemania and the Ed Sullivan Show:

“We’re more popular than Jesus”
-John Lennon, 1966

Beatlemania was a period from 1963-70 where the Beatles quickly became the most popular band in the world. They had trouble travelling without being surrounded by fans and their shows were filled with them sounds of people screaming in awe and anticipation. The culmination of all this hype, perhaps, was an evening on February 9th, 1964, when the Beatles made an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. This evening showed that the Beatles were not just popular in Europe and the UK, but in America as well.

Historical Significance:
The Beatles’ appearance on Ed Sullivan was very notable at the time. The Beatles were making headlines everywhere and 73 million people tuned in to view the show. This was the most people to ever view a program in television history. People of all ages tuned in to see whether this famous band was worth all the hype. This performance left lasting consequences as it caused the Beatles to grow immensely in popularity. Newspapers began discussing Beatlemania and this caused the Beatles to re-appear on the Ed Sullivan Show twice more before their return to England. This appearance also made the four Liverpudlians even more recognizable, as they couldn’t go anywhere, UK or America, without being swarmed by admirers. In fact, Life Magazine reported that “A Beatle who ventures out unguarded into the streets runs the very real peril of being dismembered or crushed to death by his fans.”

Evidence and Interpretation:
There is not much room to interpret what happened that night on the Ed Sullivan show as we can still watch footage of the show today. The shows illustrates the height of Beatlemania; constant screaming, fainting, and an overriding sense of hysteria from the audience. In this case, the primary sources tell the story of how the night unfolded:

Continuity and Change:
This event marked a massive change in society. Although Elvis and Frank Sinatra had achieved great popularity, they were nothing compared to the Beatles. This is partly because the baby boom meant that there were many more teenagers during the Beatles reign than there had been for the formers. Before this time, most bands, even popular ones, did not require security, but the Beatles changed that. In fact, they were almost trampled during their arrival at a British Airport.

No one had ever seen the mass hysteria that surrounded the Beatles. Since the Beatles’ appearance on Ed Sullivan, things have been relatively continuous in terms of popularity. The Beatles still obtain great popularity today, over 40 years since they stopped touring. In fact, the Beatle generate over 12 million monthly listeners on Spotify, an extremely impressive number. Although the Beatles were the first to generate this sort of popularity, they certainly weren’t the last. Artists like the Rolling Stones, U2, and Michael Jackson rival the Beatles in popularity and mass hysteria caused.

Cause and Consequence:
What caused Beatlemania, and the Beatles’ insanely large audience on the Ed Sullivan Show? For one, it was the hype that already surrounded the band in the UK. Many Americans had heard of the Beatles as the band that sent Brits into a frenzy, but they had never really heard their music, or seem their faces. This made many people tune in to the show to see for themselves if the band was special, or simply overhyped. Also, the Beatles’ popularity was obviously greatly due to their music. Never before had there been a band whose music appealed to such a variety of people. This musical talent created a large fan base of adolescents and adults alike. Without their large popularity, the Beatles would not have received such a large audience on the Ed Sullivan Show and may not have been invited to perform on the show at all. There were many consequences of the Beatles’ performance on Ed Sullivan, some intended, some unintended. The Beatles were definitely trying to generate popularity and create record sales as they were trying to make a living, but they did not intend nor did they want the level of attention that they ended up receiving.

The Beatles performing on the Ed Sullivan Show

Historical Perspective:
At first when we think about Beatlemania it does not seem that impressive. We see the same sort of frenzy surrounding current artists like Justin Bieber and One Direction. It just seems like another band who achieved great popularity and captured the hearts of many teenage girls. But when using a historical perspective, Beatlemania becomes a lot more impressive. The 73 million people who viewed the Beatles on Ed Sullivan were 3/4 of the adult television audience at the time. That means that 3 out of every 4 people who watched TV that night were watching the Beatles. We also must consider how impressive Beatlemania was at the time as it was one of the first phenomena of its kind. So when we view Beatlemania not from a present perspective but from the perspective of a 1960’s British or American citizen, it becomes a lot more impressive.

Ethical Judgement:
Did the Beatles really deserve all the attention they received? Many music critics argue that the Beatles were extremely talented musicians and worked hard to achieve their fame. But others disagree. The money and effort that was spent promoting the Beatles may have been better off used elsewhere. Also, there are many other people who deserve recognition. Many people think that occupations such as doctors, firefighters, and teachers, people who work to improve society are much more deserving of fame than a group of musicians.

Well, there you have it, a detailed account of Beatlemania and an analysis of it through different historical lenses.

*I used many sites for research including the following:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/29/beatlemania-screamers-fandom-teenagers-hysteria

http://www.edsullivan.com/the-beatles-american-debut-on-the-ed-sullivan-show-1964-2/

https://theconversation.com/beatlemania-hit-50-years-ago-but-why-did-it-drive-girls-so-mad-22758

https://www.popmatters.com/115702-beatlemania-the-defiance-of-a-generation-2496119961.html