In 1967, when the average cost of a new car was $2,750 and the average cost of gas was 33 cents a gallon, the Tisbury School’s sixth grade class placed a time capsule filled with ephemera of 50 years ago in the wall of the brand new Vineyard Haven Library. This April 29, the library staff held an event to open the time capsule. About half of the original 25 graduates were in attendance. Many of them had a hard time recalling what had been secreted in the capsule. That’s what 50 years will do to you.

After many minutes and many tools, the unbelievably soldered metal container was ripped open. What tumbled out looked like exhibits from the West Tisbury Dumptique: a Northeast Airlines timetable, an Expo ’67 Montreal brochure, a photo of a woman’s beehive hairstyle, a TV Guide with Marlo Thomas on the cover, a Beatles’ record and so on. What? Only one Beatles’ record? It was a 45, “I Feel Fine/She’s a Woman.”

This was not THE Beatles record of 1967. They packed that capsule in January of that year. If they had waited until June, a real gem could have been added to these Crackerjack prizes.

“Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, found my way downstairs and drank a cup, and looking up I noticed I was late.”

It was a Friday morning in June when I found myself on a double-decker bus in the middle of London, very au courant, very de rigueur, very very. That was June 2, 1967. Fifty blessed years ago. I had been in London for a week and I’d be there for another. My first time “abroad.”

Roundtrip airfare from Boston about $200. Wandering around Carnaby street, shopping with a little help from my friends for trendy clothing that would quickly become so yesterday. Listening to music. Seeing the sights.

“Found my coat and grabbed my hat, made the bus in seconds flat, found my way upstairs and had a smoke, and somebody spoke and I went into a dream.”

I had climbed to the top deck of the bus just in time to see something extraordinary. On the street below there were two long lines snaking in opposite directions right into busy intersections. The queue wending to the left was filled with young people of co-ed persuasion, hoping to buy the just-released Beatles’ album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The queue wending to the right was filled with older people, mostly men in dark suits or leather jackets, hoping to buy an airline ticket to Israel to fight in the Six-Day War. These lines were about to meet – back to back. Very surreal.

“Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, a girl with kaleidoscope eyes.”

On June 1, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in the U.K. and the following day in the U.S. It was certified “gold” the same day of release. It topped the charts all over the world, holding the number one slot in Britain for 27 weeks, for 19 in America. And what a talked-about cover it was. All those faces! It was the “Where’s Waldo” of ‘67.

“A crowd of people turned away, but I just had to look, having read the book. I’d love to turn you on.”

Like nearly every Beatles’ album, Sgt. Pepper was a breakthrough. They were the vanguard. Where would their music go next, we wondered? They had already used the sitar (Norwegian Wood), and incorporated classical overtones using symphonic strings and minor chords (Eleanor Rigby) which influenced the hit of that June week, Procol Harum’s, A Whiter Shade of Pale. The Beatles successfully avoided the trap of doing variations of the same hit. Instead they approached each recording session, each song and album concept, with innovation on their minds.

We were all so hip then. We even thought 64 was ancient. By mid-summer this year, the two remaining Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, will be respectively and respectfully 75 and 77. The Beatles have staying power. Today they even have fans named Vera, Chuck and Dave.

“I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in, and stops my mind from wandering. Where it will go”

The Six-Day War (June 5-10) shook the world even harder. The little state of Israel once again jumped into the headlines in another chapter of David pushing back Goliath. The tension began with a build-up of Egyptian troops on the Sinai Peninsula border. Then came Israel’s pre-emptive air strikes, followed by all-out warfare. When it was over, Israel had reaped the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. On the losing side were Egypt, its neighboring states then known as the United Arab Republic, plus Jordan and Syria. More than 20,000 had been killed. Uzi entered our vocabulary.

Fifty years have passed and the Beatles haven’t really left us. Unfortunately neither have the conflicts in the Middle East.

“I read the news today, oh boy.”