Beatley Moments | Page 295 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

sigh butterfly follows up

So…we arrived at our AirBnb and the host hands us some postcards with the apartment details to send to our family. This is it:

Reveal Spoiler

That was good omen for our visit. We had all of the usual Amsterdam fun and managed not to get run over by any of the thousands of bikes on the street. There is a restaurant next door to the apartment and we chatted every morning with Sig, the waitress there. She took a lot of interest in the Bay Area and wanted to know about California. Our last day in Amsterdam was an early May, Sunday morning and the weather was spring perfect. We told her we planned to spend the day in Vondelpark and she kind of laughed and said “After the long winter the people of Amsterdam will be in ecstasy today. I’m coming with you”!  She tore off her apron, told her boss she was leaving, and off we went following her down the canal lane and into the city. After a while she stopped in front of an apartment house and ran up to see if her friend was home. She was and invited us to come up. Her friend seemed to be a seamstress and her walls were covered with macrame. She brought out some tea and some little round waffles for us to enjoy. We soon were back on our way and made it to the park around noon. Sig left us on a bench that faced some water fountains that were in the middle of a lake and wished us well. There were lots of people laying on the grass and the vibe was similar to the beach scene at home. It wasn’t long before I started feeling a little weird. The first feeling was like a warmth in my body that left me a little short of breath, followed by a sense of anticipation that something was about to happen. Everything kind of slowed down and I started to feel very, very happy  If you are familiar with the instrumental Pepperland from the Yellow Submarine soundtrack, that was the mood. All of the colors in the park were so vivid and they were all were blending together under the marmalade skies. That’s when I realized we were very stoned. I came of age in the 60s so I’m not unfamiliar with drugs, but haven’t partaken since my last Dead concert in 92. I started to get a little paranoid (was it the tea, the waffle, did Sig actually tell me in the restaurant that the people of Amsterdam will be on ecstasy). My wife has no experience with drugs and I kind of looked at her from the corner of my eye to see how she was doing. She was smiling and staring at some people eating ice cream, so I didn’t say anything until the right moment. Every once in a while we would start laughing at nothing but the experience wasn’t overwhelming and we were able to leave the bench after a few hours. We left Amsterdam the next morning and stopped by the restaurant to ask Sig what was up, but she wasn’t working that day. Ok, I guess that was a sort of Beatley moment, with the exception that Sig isn’t a dentist.

  

When I downloaded the Amsterdam pictures from my phone, I was surprised to find a picture of Sig.

Update: During our family Christmas celebrations I was offering drinks to everyone and my adult nephew asked if I minded if he smoked some pot. We got to talking outside and I told him the story about our experience in Vondelpark/Pepperland . My wife joined the conversation and reminded me that when we are traveling, I have a tendency  to participate in conversations that I have no idea what the other person is saying (either because of accent or a language I don’t speak). Usually the worst thing that happens is maybe I offer to buy a round and get the order completely wrong. She suspects that Sig asked us if we wanted to get high before we went up to her friends place and I nodded yes. This kind of makes sense, especially considering she was so careful to leave us in a comfortable and safe place in the park. Also should say, this isn’t really a circumstance anyone needs to worry about as drugs are expensive and not too many people (at least since the 60s) are giving them away.