Paul McCartney wrote the lyrics of “Eleanor Rigby” in 1966.
With its refrain about all the lonely people, the song went on to become one of the Beatles’
greatest hits. According to McCartney, “Eleanor Rigby” is an ode to the old ladies he met doing
odd jobs as a teenager in post-war Britain. While I always loved the tense violin opening, after
my experience working at a chemical factory in my hometown in the summer of 1999, the song
came to remind me of that job and of that time as I became an adult in the context of a new
millennium, with its possibilities and growing pains layered onto my own.
— Molly Watson
New York City, 2022
Molly was 21 years old when she got the job at the chemical factory in Wellesport, out in
the small town’s industrial park. It was 1999. Y2K fever gripped the nation, at least that’s what it
felt like to Molly. Her uncle had a pyramid of tuna cans in his garage, next to a newly purchased
generator.
Molly wasn’t supposed to spend her summer in Wellesport, her hometown nestled among
similar New England coastal towns with white church steeples and red brick sidewalks and
taverns called Publick Houses. She was supposed to be in Belize, on a spelunking trip. She had
just graduated from Princeton University.
Molly’s older brother, Mike, had some concerns during the graduation festivities he
attended alongside their parents. He noted the opulence at Molly’s Princeton eating club… (page 1 of 7)