Born in 1964

If you were born in 1964, the Beatles came to Australia and the country lost its collective mind. The Fab Four toured in June, and the scenes at Sydney Airport — hysterical thousands packed beyond the barriers — were unlike anything Australia had witnessed. Graham Kennedy and the television cameras were there.

Girls screamed until they fainted. Menzies, not a rock and roll man, watched from a safe distance. The British Invasion hit Australia with all the force it hit everywhere else, and suddenly the Beatles haircut was on every boy in the suburb and the Holden radio was tuned to a new kind of sound.

Decimal currency was two years away and there was already controversy about what the new dollar should be called — the "royal" (Menzies' preference) was roundly mocked. The surf industry was now genuinely commercial, with Rip Curl and Quiksilver still a few years away but the idea of them already forming. Australian Rules football had its own moment of modernisation with the MCG's new stand going up.

The drive-in was still packed on Friday nights, though the television was beginning to cut into the habit. You could get a milkshake at the milk bar for a shilling and sit at the formica counter for an hour without anyone minding. The country was young and sun-bleached and the Beatles were on the wireless and everything, just for now, seemed possible.