Ascot

PART ONE ASCOT

In 1969, John and I went to see three houses, before deciding on Ascot.
One estate had a beautiful winding road with huge birch trees on both
sides going all the way up to the house. We liked that one very much,
but sadly they declined to sell it to us. The Class thing, you know.

Next we saw a mansion which once belonged to a very famous English poet
of the olden days. His offspring were living in it at the time we
visited. In our generation, all of us read and memorized this poet's
work in English classes throughout the world. The mansion was on a
rolling hill full of daffodils and had the beauty and the warmth you
expected from the poet. There was a certain excitement in the idea of
John Lennon taking this poet's mansion as his residence. But John and I
soon realized that the mansion was like a shrine to many people, and we
probably would have felt bad even putting a fresh coat of paint on the
walls.

The last one was a beautiful, old and rambling castle. It was a true
Saxon castle. John loved it. I loved the outside look of the castle, with
a moat and beautiful flower beds. But it was too scary for me to think
of actually living there. The main bedroom had a triple high ceiling and
a window way up high. like one would imagine a room would be in the
Tower of London. John thought it was great. “It’s like being in a horror
film" (That, in John's book, meant exciting)."On a strong windy
night, we can hold each other and stay under the covers!" There was a
full set of old armour standing like a real warrior in the corridor
outside the bedroom. Then we went to the kitchen downstairs. There were
rows of huge, rusty, iron pots each, of which could easily feed 50
people. I'd never seen anything like that before. You could boil a witch
in one. I wondered if John was thinking I would cook for him in this
kitchen on the cook's day off. For that matter, I wondered if anybody
would want to come to cook for us in this kitchen. Peter Shotton,
John's old buddy who drove us there kept saying "Yeah, man this is
great" - at the same time throwing a concerned look in my direction like
saying "I hope you're not gonna say no to this one.” Well, I did. I
took John aside and said, "John it's alright when we're together. but
what if you go out one night without me? I'd be too scared to be here
alone." John kissed me and said, "Don't be silly. I would never go out
without you, you know that. Now, that's a silly thought isn't it? To
think I would ever leave you alone!" John meant it when he said he would
never leave me alone. But how was I to know that at that point in our
relationship that we would always be together like a pair of jeans? I
was coming from the 20th century, you know, not from Wuthering Heights.
I heard John say quietly to Peter, "Too bad, Yoko doesn't like it."
"What a pity" Peter said. In hindsight, I kind of regret that we never
lived in that beautiful old castle. I regret that I wasn't a Saxon
warrior woman who could stir those big pots with one arm without
tumbling into it.

Ascot was just right for us. It was Georgian, thank God, not Saxon. John
said, "You like it?" seeing already from my expression of relief that
it was a go. “Yes," I nodded.” Okay we'll take it" "But..."
"What, what?" "There's no water on the land." "Oh, that. We'll build a
lake then. It's easy." John and I thought we would make Ascot our home
and live there for many, many years to come. Otherwise, why did we plunk
a huge lake in the garden and plant feeble looking plum and cherry
saplings around the lake which promised to become trees in twenty years
time?

Yoko Ono Lennon
NYC 1998

Illustration "A Family Tree" by John Lennon, colored by Yoko Ono Lennon.

from John Lennon Anthology CD box set booklet.