Hello from Honolulu, where I’ve been spending several months every winter for decades, largely because my sister, Terry, has lived in Honolulu all her adult life and has a substantial “ohana”—family—on the island.

I have a studio in a tall building right on the sand, where I can set up my writing desk and walk outside to swim almost every day.  Most of the women on the beach wear string bikinis that don’t cover much, but I wear a full black wetsuit, a cap, and gloves so I can swim without getting cold for about 40 minutes, studying the brilliant-colored fish and turtles in the water around the reef. The regulars on the beach know me as the wetsuit lady. So be it.

I feel refreshed and happy when I clamber back on the sand and head for the outdoor shower, so I don’t track sand into my place. The news of the “mainland,” as they call it, seems over the hills and far away.

My extended family here are super athletes. My niece, who’s six feet tall, married a man who’s seven feet—I kid you not—seven feet tall. A gentle giant. Their two children, who’re taller than all their classmates, play serious volley ball, which we all go to watch.

My birthday falls in the time I’m here, and this year, it was the happiest I can remember. Last November, while home in Colorado, I was doing research online when, from the depths of cyberspace, up popped an item about a band called AB ROAD, a Beatles tribute band in Honolulu whose members play and sing Beatles songs in what sounds like the exact vocal harmonies of the Beatles. I figured out how to contact them, and asked if they could play at a birthday party for me and my brother-in-law, Gary, whose birthday lands in the same week as mine.

I hired AB ROAD sight unseen; all I knew of them was from an online clip and emails with Nolet Quiason, an architect in his 70’s, who came to Honolulu from the Philippines when young and sings the parts of Paul McCartney, his favorite Beatle.

One of our guests was driven to the party from a retirement care home, and she was one of the first on the dance floor, along with me. It felt like you couldn’t not move and sing along.

The band had arrived early at the home of Terry and Gary to set up equipment, and the minute they started the sound check, I knew it was going to be great.

After most of the guests had arrived, they started their set with. “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Two more songs and I couldn’t resist getting up to dance, and soon half the party was on the dance floor.

Everyone had memories that were triggered by the music. For me, it was covering the Beatles for the Boston Globe in 1966. I was the youngest reporter in the City Room, so I was assigned to cover this “youth event.” The Beatles were playing at the Suffolk Downs race track at the height of August, and the tickets ranged from $4.50 to $5.75. (Bring those prices back!)

I had a press badge so I could walk down close to the stage where one of the ushers came up and told me, pointing, “There’s a group of Kennedy kids in that section.” They’d been driven up from Hyannis Port, their summer place on Cape Cod.

I walked over and sat down next to the oldest-looking one, who told me he was ”Joe Kennedy.” (oldest son of Ethel and Bobby) He said his favorite Beatle was John.

Why, I asked.

“I think he’s suave and debonair, and I like his hair.”

I asked if he wanted to grow his like John’s. He blushed, and shook his head. “I don’t think my parents would let me.” (Years later he served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years)

When the Beatles came on stage, the girls in the audience started screaming—so loud you couldn’t hear the music. The Beatles played a short set—about 30 minutes—beginning and closing with songs by rock stars they admired: Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music” and Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally.” In between came “Day Tripper,” “Yesterday,” “I Feel Fine,” “Nowhere Man” and “Paperback Writer.”

All those songs were played by AB Road at our party, and the guests were soon dancing and singing along.  It seemed we knew the words to almost every song, though I don’t remember having made any effort to learn them.

It’s hard to describe what it felt like—being carried along by music so familiar, so pleasurable, so entwined with happy associations that a number of us went to see AB Road again when they played the following weekend at a church event.

Shortly after that, I spoke with one of the trio, Nolet Quiason, a retired architect, who was born in the Philippines, and saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. That show seems to have inspired a huge number of people to become fans and start groups. Almost every musician I’ve known has referenced that show.

After moving to Honolulu in 1991, Nolet met up with Sonny, and found they shared a love of playing Beatles songs. Sonny took the parts of John Lennon while Nolet played the parts of Paul McCartney, and after they met Alastar, he played George Harrison’s tracks.

At first they all played ukuleles and called themselves “Beat-lele,” but last year they shifted to guitars and took the name AB Road. They never tried to dress and wear their hair like the Beatles, as other tribute bands do. Members of the tribute band, Rain, wear uniforms that look like what the Beatles wore on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album.

AB Road doesn’t perform frequently, but Alastar is about to join Rain on a U.S. tour. Although he plays George Harrison’s guitar parts, he says he identifies most with Jonh Lennon, “with his spirituality, self inquiry, and search for meaning.”

He believes the greatest popular music of our lifetimes came out in the 60’s and 70’s.

Well, yes. Wouldn’t you agree?

To hear AB Road, click here