It all took place in 1966…

I had graduated from college in May with a bachelor’s degree in Home Economics with a concentration in Textiles & Apparel. As long as I could remember, I loved fashion and making groovy outfits. As a matter of fact, when I was little, I used to go to the fabric store with my mom and she would get a little extra fabric for me so I could make some clothes for my dolls.

In the meantime, I befriended Liz, who was recently hired as a makeup artist for the show. As we got to know each other, we found that we had a lot in common…not just in music, hobbies, and humor, but also in the fact that we thoroughly enjoyed putting our respective skills and talents into practice. (And we worked very well together…for instance, we agreed on how Wolfman (Micky) and Dracula (Davy) should look for in the episode "Monstrous Monkee Mash" J .) I also got a chance to meet other nice people, like Jack Williams, the "props man"! Then I finally got to meet the foursome. Bob Rafelson, one of the producers of the show, introduced me to them. Bob said, "Hey fellas—I want you to meet our new costume designer for the show…really groovy! Got lots of talent…this is A. P. Ms. P., these are the Monkees—here’s Mike Nesmith."

Mike shook my hand and said, "It’s very nice to meet you, Ms. P."

"Please—you don’t have to call me Ms. P. You can call me ‘A’…now that we know each other."

He smiled and said, "Bob forgot to mention how sweet you are," and kissed my hand. (In the midst of our conversation, I gave them my full name, Alicia Patterson.)

Then Bob said, "And here’s Micky Dolenz."

Micky put my hand in his right hand, stroked it with his left hand, raised his eyebrow and said his (Babyface Dolenz) gangster voice, "So…you’re the…uh…(smacks his lips) new costume designer for the show…really groovy…uh…lots of talent, eh?"

I chuckled a little bit and said, "Yeah, I guess you could say that, Mr. Gangster Man," and Micky and the other guys broke into hysterics! I guess they didn’t expect me to say that in a high, Betty Boop voice with my eyes crossed J .

Then after Micky caught his breath, he said, "It’s very nice to meet you, Alicia. Bob didn’t tell me how funny you were!"

Then I said, "(It) looks like I’m gonna have to have a little talk with Bob," teasingly. Micky smiled (while the others chuckled) and kissed my hand.

Then Bob said, "All right, Alicia—I’ll letcha slide J . Now here’s Peter Tork."

Peter kissed my hand and then he looked at me for a while as if he was trying to place me. Then he said, "You know, you look awfully familiar…"

And I said, "Hmmm…Well…Gee, I…" Then it got me thinking because there were a lot of people I met (that were still fresh in my mind)…even when I was about five years old when I was in Germany where my father was stationed in the military. For some reason I said, "Berlin" out loud—since I was thinking about Germany at the time.

Then I guess it triggered Peter’s memory when I said that because he said, "Ule." I was SHOCKED!

"Ule?!" I said. "You know him?"

Peter goes, "Oh my God! You know him, too?! Small world—he was my playmate when we were kids!"

I said, "Ah, man…I can’t believe it! Ule and I used to…"

Before I could finish, someone came from the back and told Peter he had a phone call. Before he left to answer the phone, Peter said, "Gee, Alicia…it was really great to meet you. I’ll talk to you later, okay?"

"Okay, Pete."

Well, it’s three down and one to go—Bob said, "And last, but not least…David Jones." When I looked at him, I admit the first thing I saw was his beautiful brown eyes.

As I was saying, "Pleased to meet you, David," he took my left hand and kissed it. (I didn’t notice that distinction until Liz told me later in private. The other three guys kissed my right hand. She caught on to the fact that Davy had a thing for me right away and I didn’t see it!) And when he kissed my hand, he was looking right at me…almost as if he could see my inner being…very deep.

Then he said, "The pleasure is all mine." By this time, Bert Schneider, the other producer, called Bob over to him. Bob said something as he approached Bert, but I didn’t know exactly what because all I could think about was how Davy was looking at me again. This time, his focus was really deep and kind of hypnotizing to me. He came closer, still holding my hand and then he………..blinked, shook his head a little bit and said, "Oh, I’m terribly sorry. I hope I didn’t make you feel uncomfortable."

I smiled and said, "It’s okay…really J . No harm done."

He returned a smile and said, "Good, because I don’t want Bob to say anything J ," and we both laughed.