The Beatles Boxed Set (13 page)

            The
war had spawned fear among the residents, butythey continued with their lives
amidst the raging war. Some still tended to their shops and gardens, or what
was left of them. Each evening, sirens screamed, alerting people to take cover
from the Nazi planes overhead.

            It
was during one of these air raids in Liverpool, on October 9, 1950, that John
Winston Lennon was born.

            John’s
mother, Julia Lennon (nee Stanley) was a beautiful, auburn-haired woman who
grew up the fourth daughter of a middle-class family. She was a natural singer
who could also dance the jitterbug and play the banjo and the ukulele, skills
that she learned from her paternal grandfather. Ignoring the rules of decorum
that many “respectable” people followed, Judy, as Julia was called by her
family, would wear high heels, red nail polish and would style her hair
according to how movie stars of the day styled their own. She wanted to do as
she pleased, including provoking her parents.

            And
when 14-year-old Judy met the 15-year-old Alf Lennon and introduced her to her
family, her parents and sisters were shocked at her choice of boyfriend. Though
Alf was charming, he could not find a decent job, something that kept the
couple from marrying.

John Lennon as a child

            Eventually,
Judy and Alf married in 1938. Judy’s family moved to a bigger house in
Newcastle Road in order to accommodate the newly married couple. Alf shipped
out after the wedding while Judy continued to live with her parents, working as
a waitress and as an usherette at the Trocadero.

            Apparently,
Judy had no interest in becoming a mother, but a child was conceived anyway.
And when it was time for her to give birth, she went to the hospital alone. It
wasn’t clear whether Judy didn’t inform her family or they stayed home because
of the bombing, but no one comforted her while she went through a difficult
labor for 30 hours.

            And
when John was born, with his father away, Judy was confused with what to do
with her son. Even then, she named him John, after Alf’s father and
grandfather, and Winston as his second name after Prime Minister Churchill
Winston who had just delivered a speech the day before.

            When
the Stanleys were informed that Judy had given birth to a healthy baby boy,
Judy’s eldest sister, Mimi Smith, raced to the hospital. Mimi recalled, “I was
dodging in doorways between running as fast as my legs would carry me… I was
literally terrified. Transport had stopped because the bombs began always at
dusk. There was shrapnel falling and gunfire and when there was a little lull I
ran into the hospital ward and there was this beautiful little baby.”

            And
when Aunt Mimi held the baby in her arms, she fell in love. She was a childless
mother, and the arrival of baby John filled some need in her. Years later, she
would consistently claim that from the moment she saw John, she knew that she
wanted to be his mother.  She claimed that “…Julia accepted it as something
perfectly natural. She used to say, ‘You’re his real mother. All I did was give
birth.’”

            But
no sooner had Aunt Mimi carried John that the air-raid sirens began screaming
again. Hospital personnel asked her either she go down the basement or go home.
Aunt Mimi chose to go home while Judy stayed in the hospital. John, meanwhile, was
put underneath the bed.

            After
a week at the hospital, Judy took her son home to show him to his grandparents.
A few days later, they posted an announcement on the
Liverpool Echo
:
“Lennon – October 9
^th
, in hospital to Julia (nee Stanley) wife of
ALFRED LENNON, Merchant Navy (at sea), a son. 9 Newcastle Road.”

            Alf
saw his son for the first time a few weeks later. He stayed in Liverpool for a
couple of weeks with his wife and son and left again. Alf’s job kept him from
staying with his family for long; and for the next five years, he spent only
three months in Liverpool, living in air-raid shelters with his wife and son or
at the docks “fire watching” during raids.

John with his mother, Julia Stanley (also
called Judy)

            The
bombings intensified when the Nazis dropped 2,315 high-explosive bombs and 119
incendiaries in Liverpool, killing almost two thousand people and injuring more
than a thousand. The situation grew a bit better the following month, but
Judy’s family was stricken by her mother’s death, leaving George Stanley in the
Newcastle Road apartment with Judy and John.

            Judy
wasn’t about to burden herself with taking care of her son and staying at home
like every housewife should. The times were characteristic of wartime romances,
and Judy was having more fun going out than being with her son. Alf would
sometimes return in Liverpool to find his son at Aunt Mimi’s and traces of
other men in their home. At first, Alf took Judy’s infidelities in stride.

            When
John was two, Aunt Mimi invited Judy and her son to move into her Woolton
cottage at Allerton Road, just behind the house called Mendips where she lived
with her husband, George Smith. Judy grabbed the opportunity to be away from
her disapproving father.

            And
when Alf returned, his relationship with his wayward wife turned sour. By then
Judy had become accustomed to going out each night, and when Alf arrived, she
left John behind with him and left the house with her friends.

            The
following morning, the couple had an ugly argument that led to Judy pouring hot
tea over her husband’s head and Alf slapping his wife across the face. That
signaled that things were would never be the same again.

            Alf
was to leave again. He had just been promoted to chief steward on the
Berengaria
,
bound for New York. That trip would turn out to be a disaster, and it would be
18 months before he could see his family again.

            Alf’s
version of his story indicated that he was stranded in New York and thus unable
to send letters – and checks – to his family back in Liverpool. To make matters
worse, he was interned at Ellis Island by the US Immigration Service. Judy had
assumed that Alf had “jumped ship” or was lost at sea or, worse, dead. Rumors
had it that with little means of support, Judy started sleeping with men for money.
True or not, what was clear was that Judy had little concern for her son’s
welfare.

Alfred Lennon was always away at sea and
didn’t see much of his son when John was young

            Alf
finally made it back Liverpool in 1945, but things had changed. He came home
with his wife nowhere to be found and his son being minded by neighbors. And
when Judy came home that night, Alf had the biggest shock of his life. Not only
did Judy begin seeing another man, but she was pregnant and claimed to have
been raped by a soldier. Alf found out that this was untrue, and that Judy and
the soldier had been seeing each other for the last nine months.

            Alf
was ready to forgive his wife and support her unborn child, but Judy declined.
Judy’s father, George, surprisingly supported her in this. He suggested that
Judy put the baby up for adoption, which she did after giving birth to a
daughter, Victoria Elizabeth. Victoria was adopted by a Norwegian couple.

            The
birth and the adoption were traumatic for Judy, who struggled through the
months that followed with a job at a café in Penny Lane. There she would meet
Bobby Dykins, a lowly-paid kitchen worker with whom Judy lived with until his
death.

            For
little John, who was five years old, the adoption might have affected him, too.
Children his age knew what it means when a woman is pregnant. John may have
known the implications of the adoption as well. Being a bright and curious
child, the realization that his baby sister was put up for adoption may have
increased his feeling of uncertainty. He felt that if his mother had given her
sister away, she might do the same to him one day.

            In
1945, Aunt Mimi enrolled John in the Mosspits Lane Infant School, but John was
dismissed the following spring for severe behavioral problems. As it turned
out, John had bullied a girl at school.

            His
father returned to sea again after Victoria’s birth and returned in 1946. When
he returned, he found out that Judy’s father had moved in back in the
apartment. There was also an addition to the residents of the Newcastle Road
apartment, a waiter named Bobby Dykins, Judy’s new boyfriend. Alf threw him out
and told George Stanley to move out the next day.

            Judy
moved out, too, taking John with her to live with Dykins in Gateacre. But they
returned to 9 Newcastle Road shortly after.

            In
May 1946, Alf received a long-distance call from Aunt Mimi, who informed him
that John had walked two miles to her house because he didn’t like living with
Judy and Dykins. John pleaded for his father to stay. But Alf had to leave for
work and promised he’d be back soon.

            When
he came back, he had made a big decision to take John with him. He told Mimi
that he’d take John shopping and to spend a few days at Blackpool, a resort
town thirty miles from Liverpool. Blackpool was the place to go for workers,
sailors and their families with its promenade, rides and games. There was an
amusement park built in the American style. With its carnival rides, games to
play and prizes to win, it was the perfect holiday destination for a
five-year-old boy who’d gotten used to rationing. John must have been thankful
for his father for taking him away from war-torn Liverpool, if only for a
while, to a sunny seaside where he could eat ice cream and candy flosses and
play all day.

            Alf
intended to relocate to New Zealand, take his son with him and start a new
life. He had given up reconciling with Judy whom he felt didn’t properly take
care of their son. In his memoir Alf had written, “I set off with John for
Blackpool – intending never to come back.”

            Several
accounts of that holiday differed, but it appeared to have lasted for about
three weeks. Judy had tracked down Alf’s friend, Billy Hall’s house where he
was staying with John. Naturally, Alf was surprised to see Judy there. She was
the last person he expected to get in his way.

            Alf
and Judy talked, with Alf convincing his carefree wife to get back together
with him as it would be the best thing to do for their son. But Judy said no to
reconciliation. What they did next was cruel to a five-year-old boy who only
rarely experienced having both his father and mother in the same room at the
same time. They thought it was only fair that John had a say in his fate. They
asked him whom he preferred: his mother or his father?