One of the things I like most about working outside of an office is my drive to and from a church each day. Last week I drove back and forth from Indianapolis to Batesville, Indiana, about 70 miles each way. It’s an easy interstate drive and well within my parameters as to whether or not I will stay overnight.
During my drives, my thoughts can range from the mundane, such as what I might like to have for lunch that day, to the profound, such as God, religion, and patriotism. Sometimes I think of pretty silly things and sometimes I think serious things. This week I spent one entire drive thinking about the greatest events to which I have ever been. I’m talking sports, music, political, civic, whatever. I recall so many different concerts. I remember going to baseball games at Ebbets Field and Yankee Stadium with my brother and dad, going to basketball games with my brother at Madison Sq. Garden, and so many concerts I can’t even begin to mention them all. Some of them do stand out though.
I remember going to the Fillmore East with my friend Christine Marotta when we were both home from college and seeing Jefferson Airplane and The Doors in concert. Jim Morrison wore these tight black leather pants and I was taken by not only how many girls were licking their lips for him but also how many guys were.
I went to see The James Gang in concert in Cincinnati once. Their opening act was Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, who were on their first American tour. For those of you too young to remember them, James Gang was Joe Walsh of The Eagles first group and they were from Cleveland. They were a very enjoyable three guitar and a drum band with a country rock feel. E, L, P was from England and were all classically trained musicians. They used gongs, bass drums, and especially a Moog Synthesizer, which is now common place but at that time was a novelty. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer came out first with a wall of equipment, Hammond Church Organs, Synthesizers, and blew the crowd away. The poor James Gang seemed so bland after that that people were booing and walking out. I felt bad for them.
My favorite concert experience though was my senior year of college. I was eating lunch in the cafeteria on a Friday when my friend Tom came up. He said that some bands we liked were playing in St. Louis both that night and Saturday night. On an absolute spur of the moment, we got in his old VW bus and went. We got to St. Louis too late to catch The Steve Miller Band and Quicksilver at Kiel Auditorium on Friday. We wound up driving to the parking lot at Washington U. in St. Louis to sleep in his bus. Somehow we befriended some students who invited us to the dorms to party and we had a great time. Saturday we went to the zoo, dropped some acid, and went to see Jethro Tull in concert. Tull was releasing their masterpiece “Aqualung” that week, but nobody had ever heard it. Between the acid, the band’s intensity for the fresh music, and the greatness of the music itself, it was my favorite concert. DISCLAIMER: THIS WAS OVER 40 YEARS AGO AND WAS THE LAST TIME I TOOK LSD. I STRONGLY DISAPPROVE USE OF HALLUCINOGENS.
I would most likely have gone to Woodstock, as I was only three weeks and less than 100 miles away, and my friend Christine would have gone, but my brother and I had the opportunity to go to Mexico instead. I have no regrets about that.
Interestingly enough, depending on whether you find any of this interesting, I came up with my three favorite events attended of all time and not one of them has to do with music or concerts. Actually, I’ve come to hate going to concerts, as I find the hassle of the crowd, parking, and stupid, drunk people a turn off. I will go to the symphony or to a small club, but try to avoid venues that seat thousands. The three events that have remained fondly in my memory the most are my trip with my brother to the Kentucky Derby in 1968, The Washington Moratorium against the Viet Nam war in November, 1969, and my personal favorite, the NCAA college basketball regional in 1996 which I went to with daughter Jana.
The Derby trip with my brother was a classic case of everything going right for us. Andy was in graduate school in Pittsburgh and I was in my last semester at Wilmington College in Wilmington, Ohio prior to transferring to Transylvania University in Lexington, KY. Andy came down to Wilmington on Thursday, stayed with me, and then we headed off to Louisville on Friday. We had no idea of where we would sleep, probably his car, and figured we’d be among the throngs in the infield. As we drove down, we wound up following a car with NY license plates. We also had NY plates. We followed each other through Ohio and Kentucky and finally pulled off for some coffee and to chat with them. It turned out that the other car had a beautiful young woman and a very friendly and nice guy as its occupants. We told them we were going to the Derby and they said they were as well. The guy said he was staying at his old fraternity house and he would see if they could put us up for the night. The frat guys were great and put us up in a decent room and took us out to a bar with them. In the morning the guy from NY who fixed us up with the room pulled us aside to tell us that the girl he was with, who was just a friend, was the daughter of one of the producers of the Derby for CBS. He gave us Grandstand tickets. So we went from no place to stay and no place to sit to being comfortably taken care of. At the Derby, my horse, Dancer’s Image, won and paid a decent amount. The next day he was disqualified for illegal medication but we were long gone by then. In the race after the Derby I bet on a tremendous long shot (RIP, Al’s Birthday!) which came in first. I remember the pay off being enough for Andy and I to have a really good dinner. The bottom line was free tickets and free room and board for the Kentucky Derby. That’s hard to beat.
As for the moratorium against the war, I have never been involved with something that big before or since. About 12 or so people from my college drove to Washington and stayed with the family of one of our protesters. On Saturday morning we marched across the bridge from Arlington into Washington. It was almost surreal. The estimates range from 300,000 to over a million people in attendance. I remember armed policemen watching us from the roof tops. I also remember a few of them giving us the peace sign. When we passed the White House, I noticed it was circled bumper to bumper by city buses so no one could try to climb the fences. We heard music from Peter, Paul, and Mary, speeches by the Reverends Berrigan and Dr. Spock. At one point I got lost and found myself too near the FBI building which some more radical protesters were trying to invade. Tear gas from the riot police drifted the one block to where I was standing. As I was coughing and tearing up, a very nice cop came up to me and led me to a trailer the police had and washed my eyes out. He knew I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We left on Sunday, and about 100 miles into the drive back there was an impromptu peace rally going on along the interstate. Hundreds of protesters had abandoned their cars, climbed a hill alongside the highway, and formed a huge peace sign. We stayed like that for about ½ hour before the highway patrol came in force to remove us. We all left peacefully.
My favorite all time experience was with my daughter Jana during her senior year of high school. She was a fantastic student and kid, a Merit Scholar, top 10 in her class, etc. She had been fixated on Duke University’s basketball program since she was 12 years old and had a huge crush on Christian Laettner, one of their stars. After he graduated she would find new favorites. She developed a major attraction to one player in particular, Chris Collins. I suspect she would go into her room at night and write “Jana Collins” over and over in her notebook. At this time, we were in serious financial difficulty and couldn’t really afford many treats, but when we found out the regional was going to be in Indianapolis, three hours away, and Duke was going to be in it, I knew she had to go. We got tickets for both the Thursday and Saturday sessions, six games in all. I let her cut school on Thursday and I took off from work. We packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drinks so we didn’t pay concession stand prices. The games were great. A guy behind us was a former player for some college I can’t remember and he had a blast teasing Jana about Duke in general and Chris Collins especially. He’d tell her he’d heard that Collins had just signed a major shoe deal with Florsheim, a maker of dress shoes. The spirit of the crowd, there to root on eight different universities, was unbelievable. Duke was upset by Eastern Michigan in the afternoon session on Thursday and Jana was heartbroken, but we left after the game and walked over to Duke’s hotel. After 30 minutes or so their bus pulled up and she got to meet Chris Collins and Coach K and get their autographs and pictures. They were very gracious considering they had just lost and Collins’ collegiate career was now over. It was a thrill I know Jana has never forgotten. That evening we got to see Princeton University upset defending national champions UCLA. The crowd was absolutely hysterical rooting for Princeton and we were crazy right along with them. We drove home late at night. We went back on Saturday for the final two games, which was fun, but nothing topped the time we had on Thursday. I think the fact that I got to spend a very special time with my daughter makes it number one.
Hope this hasn’t bored you.
