cover image Sweet Beatle Dreams: The Diary of Mary Mack Conger

Sweet Beatle Dreams: The Diary of Mary Mack Conger

Mary Mack Conger. Andrews McMeel Publishing, $6.95 (87pp) ISBN 978-0-8362-7975-7

This slight, unpretentious diary from 1964 captures the exuberance of teens determined to see the Beatles in concert, devastated by rumors that ``Paul'' had married (``There's still George and Ringo, but I'd rather have John or Paul'') and dreaming of running away to London. Conger, who as a 14-year-old traveled from Iowa to Chicago for a Beatles performance, records her epiphanies with infectious glee. Before the concert, she orders a ``Beatle Burger'' at a shop near the auditorium and saves the check: ``The lady . . . wrote `Biddle Burger!' She didn't even know who the Beatles were! Spare me!'' At the performance: ``When THEY finally started singing . . . you couldn't even hear them. Not at all. It was a solid scream.'' A pen pal thrills her by sending a lock of George Harrison's hair, obtained from still another pen pal whose father was barber to George and Ringo. Interwoven are reveries about boys at school and general musings: ``I wonder what 1965 will bring. Another Beatles concert? A war? Another president assassinated?'' Conger is a marketing coordinator for an educational publisher. (Aug.)