And that one Beatles song that for me is the best is… Well, before the song, some more scene setting.

This is the image in my mind that the song often returns me to. A weekday morning at some point in 1967. It must have been a school holiday as me and my brother were not at school and dad was at work. In those days we had a duffle bag full of toy cars – matchbox cars, dinky toys, all sorts of motor vehicles, all shapes and sizes and many of them scratched and with buckled wheels. Newer cars were kept out of the duffle bag until their newness had worn off. The entire bag was tipped out onto the living room floor. My brother and I would position ourselves, him at one end of the room, and me at the other. In my memory I was seeing beyond my brother the large living-room window that looked out onto the front garden. We would line our chosen cars up and then push the cars to each other. The aim of the game was for the cars not to politely pass each other on their journey to the other end but to crash into each other – the more spectacular the crash the better. We could spend hours playing this game and had such fun. While we were chipping the paint off our already bashed and battered cars mum was in the kitchen. I have no idea what she was doing – cooking, baking, laundry or a number of other chores that had to be done. But the one thing I do remember is that while she did whatever she was doing she was also listening to the radio. And the one song I remember hearing on that school holiday morning was…

…Penny Lane.

I love the tune, the words, the brass, the change of key. The song just makes me feel so nostalgic. I am listening to it now as I write. The thought of a clean, gleaming fire engine makes me smile because I know that would have been the sort of image that would have captured my imagination as a five year old. There are so many Beatles songs to choose from, to enjoy, to savour, to take nostalgic trips on – and Penny Lane is the one for me.

I can hear the song coming through to the living room from the kitchen wireless as mum worked at her chores. As the barber, the banker and the poppy seller did their thing, so did me and my brother do ours. And as our toy cars clattered onto the carpet…

‘Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes’

As we took it in turns choosing an army of Matchbox motors…

‘On the corner is banker with a motor car’

Our cars faced each other at distance, revving their engines, counting down…

‘Penny Lane, there is a fireman with an hourglass’

None of our worn and scratched vehicles were as presentable as the fireman’s…

‘He likes to keep his fire engine clean

It’s a clean machine’

So whatever sky I walk below or sit beneath…

‘Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes

There beneath the blue suburban skies

I sit and meanwhile back’

In my world, which is real?

This one or the 60’s world of Penny Lane?