Family Road Trip

June 22 - July 2, 1969

Kyoko, Yoko, Julian, and John relaxing in the yard of Corbett Arms Hotel in Tywyn, Wales on June 23, 1969

Since I've been referencing the Scotland car crash a lot lately in recent posts, might as well make a post about it!

One day at Tittenhurst Park, with Julian and Kyoko visiting over the weekend, John and Yoko spontaneously decided to take a family road trip up to Liverpool and Scotland. The plan was to visit family members and for John to show his new wife and children where he grew up. John used to go to Scotland as a child during school holidays with the Stanley family getting together. Fun, right? Well, there's a big mistake in John's idea: he never told Cynthia about it. I don't know if Tony (Kyoko's father) knew, but certainly not Cynthia. We'll get to more of her part later on. Another mistake: letting John, a known terrible driver, to drive. He had a chauffeur, Les Anthony, but John probably had an enthusiasm to be a normal family man to take his wife and children on a road trip. I think John meant well, and it's not often Julian and John went out on vacations. If Cynthia had known, I'm sure she would have approved but would insist Yoko to drive instead. Did Yoko ever drove? I never thought much of that, to be honest. I don't think I have ever seen Yoko behind the wheel? Anyway, it sounds to me that John had Julian for a week over the Summer (it could've meant to be a longer visit if John hadn't crashed). Julian must have arrived at Tittenhurst Park either on a Friday evening of June 20th or Saturday morning of June 21st as the family hit the road on June 22nd. I should also point out that Yoko was pregnant with their second child (their first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage); not sure how far along but I recall that John and Yoko were planning to name the baby (boy or girl) Amsterdam. Okay, so the baby may have conceived during John and Yoko's first Bed In peace protest in late March of 1969 in Amsterdam (their second one in Montreal was in late May, early June with Kyoko with them; they came home in time for Julian's visit)... so, Yoko was approximately three months pregnant. 

John, Yoko, Julian, and Kyoko on the driveway of Aunt Harrie and Uncle Norman's home in Liverpool on June 26, 1969

John, Yoko, Julian, and Kyoko started off their journey on June 22, 1969 from Ascot. Their first stop was Tywyn, Wales which was about a four and a half hours of driving. They stayed at the Corbett Arms Hotel overnight; from what I read, they had hotel reservations. After relaxing, resting, and eating, the family continued up to Liverpool, about two and a half hours of driving on June 23rd. They first visited John's Aunt Nanny in Rock Ferry to spend the night before going to Aunt Harrie in Woolton. Nanny attempt to feed them a meal but John and Yoko declined due to their macrobiotic diet. However, Nanny's son Mike's girlfriend had a bag of jelly beans- John indulged a handful of few until Yoko told him off. A similar thing happened at Harrie's house: she thought John looked incredibly thin and made them a dinner of roast leg of lamb, mint sauce, roast potatoes, vegetables, and apple pie with cream pudding. But Yoko told Harrie that she and John don't eat that and proceeded to cook their macrobiotic meal of steamed vegetables with Tamari sauce and brown rice. Both Nanny and Harrie were put off by Yoko; John's latest antics of Bed Ins with Yoko wasn't doing well by them; it wasn't a "pro-Cynthia, anti-Yoko" situation, just two completely different worlds collision. Yoko talked a lot about philosophy of Zen to Uncle Norman. I'm pretty sure there was tension in both houses. John's sister Julia was living in Belfast, Ireland, newly married and recently welcomed her first child; he called her up from Harrie's house and they caught up. 

John, Yoko, Julian, and Kyoko visiting Holbrook Special School on June 26, 1969 in Liverpool

While in Liverpool, John showed Yoko and their children the houses he lived in, where his mother lived in, going to Woolton, Penny Lane, probably driving by the Cavern as welJulianrie did note to Julia that John and Yoko seemed very much in love: sitting on the sofa, holding hands, and talking for hours, perhaps reminiscent of when John did that with Cynthia a decade ago. After John, Yoko, and the kids left, Yoko left behind two blouses that Harrie saved for Julia when she came by months later to introduce her baby son to the family; the blouses didn't fit Julia, she didn't realize Yoko was petite. They were in Liverpool for about three days. The day of their departure for Scotland, John, Yoko, Julian, and Kyoko visited Holbrook Special School, meeting with schoolchildren and facility. During this visit, John decided to change the Mini Cooper he was driving to his Leyland Austin Maxi, which Les Anthony drove up to deliver and brought the Mini Cooper back home in Ascot. After the school visit, the family drove up almost 5 hours to Edinburgh, Scotland where Julian and Kyoko got matching Scottish kilts.

John, Yoko, Julian, and Kyoko in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Between the dates of June 27th until the morning of July 1st, the family drove around Scotland: Edinburgh, Durness (where Aunt Mater lived), and Tongue Village. They stayed with Mater, where a similar thing happened at Harrie's: Mater made dinner but John and Yoko declined. Once again, Yoko made their macrobiotic meal. Although this time around, Mater didn't hold back. She said exactly what was on her mind. At one point, John told Mater that he was going to take Julian away from Cynthia. Why? Probably due to Kyoko's custody fight that wasn't settled in Yoko's divorce, John got inspired to do the same. Mater was furious! She defended Cynthia, John had no reason to take Julian away from his mother, and told John to get that idea out of his mind. By the morning of July 1st, John couldn't take it. Angrily, John and Yoko left with the children in tow. The weather wasn't all that great and when John spotted a tourist driving pass him, John panicked, lost control of the car that ended up in a ditch. Up to that point, John was actually doing a good job behind the wheel without any mishaps. I just hope he didn't drive in the dark! Anyway, John, Yoko, and Kyoko were unconscious. Julian managed to get out of the wreck and waited on the roadside for help. Luckily a passerby saw Julian and the car accident and called for help. They were all taken to Lawson Memorial Hospital in Golspie: John had a bad cut on his face that received 17 stitches. Yoko injured her back and also had a cut on her face, receiving 14 stitches. Kyoko had a small cut on her face, getting 4 stitches. Julian had no injuries and was treated for shock. He was also able to be released from the hospital. Mater heard about the accident and went to pick up Julian. Despite being pissed off at his Aunt, John granted permission for Julian to be with Mater. 

"He used to have an Aunt in Glasgow, which we used to visit. Now I can't remember her name for the life of me, really can't. We used to go up there and she used to cook homemade flapjacks and all kinds of things. That was when we had the accident. Well, I don't know where we were going - no idea. We were probably already there, I think we'd seen her already and we'd been down to the local town and all bought kilts, respective kilts for respective names, I guess, I don't know. The actual accident, all I remember is sitting in the backseat with Yoko's daughter Kyoko, and driving down a long and winding road, the sun was just about setting. I don't recall how it happened - it felt like possibly we were going around the corner a wee bit too fast but I'm not sure, I couldn't say. The next thing I remember is the car - actually opening my eyes in the car, still picture it being upside down on its side. It's funny, because only just a couple of seconds before that had I decided to kneel on the floor behind Yoko - you know where you put your feet just behind the seat. So I crunch up there to think I was going to try and go to sleep, I think that's what I was doing. When I actually woke up, Dad was unconscious, blood everywhere. Yoko was out. Kyoko - I don't even recall seeing her in the car, she was there. I crawled out of the car and got up onto the road. There was a milestone there, some kind of information stone. Before that, I couldn't raise life out of anybody, you know, there was no sign of life, so I didn't know what to do. Basically I just sort of sat on the milestone and cried, because we were in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the mountains. I was fine, didn't have a cut, nothing. Well I sat on the milestone and eventually some people drove by and they saw what happened obviously. I remember the ambulance arriving. I remember sitting in the back of the ambulance with purple windows, going with the siren on. I was lying down on the left hand side and the ambulance was just going as fast as they possibly could. The next thing I remember is waking up with pajamas on with a bowl of cornflakes in my hands and directly in front of me was Dad, with a big bandage and channel thickens. Yoko was behind the screen. I was allowed to get up and walk - I actually went over to see what happened to Yoko. She just had this incredible dent in her forehead which was scary as hell. I recall Kyoko being on the side, something bad had happened to her. They really had to do some surgery to stitch some of her face. Then I remember my Mum arriving, driving up there because I just told Mum that I was going to Tittenhurst for the weekend and the next thing she hears on the radio is that Dad's in a car accident with his wife and son, etc. I just remember helping into the car that was it, went to London."

Julian 

John, Yoko, Kyoko, and Peter Brown at Inverness Airport in Ireland after being discharged from the hospital on July 6, 1969. Julian already left with Cynthia a few days before.

Meanwhile, in London, Cynthia had no clue that her ex husband took their son up to Liverpool and Scotland. She found out about the car crash from the television news. Cynthia was livid! I don't blame her at all. John didn't tell her, nor did he tell her through third party (usually Peter Brown), about the family trip. Cynthia immediately embark on her own adventure to bring her son home. Peter arranged Cynthia for a flight to Edinburgh... only except Cynthia and Peter realized too late that they were on the wrong flight, to Belfast, Ireland! Because of the urgency and anxiety, they didn't realize the mistake until after the fact. So, at the airport in Belfast, they caught the flight to Edinburgh, arriving the following day, July 2nd. Cynthia and Peter then took a long taxi ride to Golspie, arriving at the hospital. The hospital informed her that Julian wasn't hurt and was released in Mater's care. Meanwhile, John and Yoko refused to see Cynthia; instead John passed a note to her regarding Yoko having trouble with Julian's behavior. That pissed off Cynthia (I already written about that), but the most important thing to know was his condition and whereabouts. Cynthia called Mater, who confirmed Julian was with her. Cynthia went there, another long drive in the taxi for 50 miles, to find Julian tucked in a blanket drinking hot chocolate. Mater unloaded on Cynthia with these tales of Yoko's macrobiotic diet and John's plan to take Julian away from her. Julian and Cynthia spent the night at Mater's before flying back to London the following day. Cynthia was still pissed off at John but realized nothing was going to change. Peter stayed with John, Yoko, and Kyoko to take them home to London after getting discharged from the hospital. I'm not sure how long after, but the stress of the accident and the injuries Yoko got caused a miscarriage. When John returned to The Beatles to record Abbey Road, John got Yoko a bed to rest on and a microphone hanging for her to make her input, much to the baffled dismay from his band mates.