Best of time and Worst of times

 

Kevin woke up Saturday morning and just lied in bed thinking. It was his birthday and his mind was taking him  back to last years birthday. He was still in Basic training and the unit took a 20 Mile forced march. The Drill Sergeants did not tell them anything about the day and they just were told to leave there field gear there and someone would come and get it. They started walking just kept walking and walking. They told the trainees that they might encounter  tear gas so be alert and that brought back bad memories of the gas chamber they had gone through a few weeks back. During that part of the training you had to job in place in full field gear to open all your pores. Once you were good and sweaty the Drill sergeants told you to put on your gas mask and then enter the building. Instantly every part of you body started to burn. They then made you run around the building in a circle to make sure you were breathing hard. They then opened the door and one by one you took your mask off and had to tell the Drill Sergeant you name rank and serial number before getting let out. As soon as the mask came off it felt like someone was ripping your lungs out. So to be told that you might encounter tear gas was a scary thought to the troops . Starting at 8 in the morning the unit started marching down the  dessert roads. The one clue that the troops had was they were told to carry extra socks. That was so when your socks got wet from sweat you could change them to keep from getting blisters. They were issue a C-ration for lunch that morning which was another indication something different was happening that day.  during one of the short breaks  Kevin thought 

"This must have been how  the GI's in WWII must have felt during there major marches to the battle fields."

 As it came close to 4PM the guys had been marching almost constantly for 8 hours. Up ahead the units in the front of the formation  spotted the cattle trucks that had been used to take them back to the barracks  and started  cheering. The Units in the rear not having seen the trucks got confused and assumed they were under attack with tear gas as they had been told in the morning.  Remembering the hell of the gas chamber they  instantly dropped their gear and put on their gas masks. This sent the drill sergeants into a frenzy hollering 

"What the hell are you dickweeds doing?"

"See those trucks up ahead pick up your gear and getting loaded up NOW!!"

As Kevin lied there he told himself that "this year is going to be different. I am going to have a good Birthday"

Kevin got up showered, dressed and headed down the hall to see who he could rustle up to help celebrate his birthday. 

A little while back Kevin go tired of sitting in the barracks and bought a car to get around. It was a 1969 Plymouth Newport and luck had it the car was forest green, or OD green as his fiends calls it. OD Green is an Army term of the green that jeeps and tank are painted. Kevin's friends called his car the tank because it was so big and green. Being in his early 20's Kevin, like other guys in there 20's did not care about how the car ran. The car's power steering did not work so it truly drove like a tank and you had to keep both hands on the steering wheel. But, instead of fixing the power steering Kevin bought a killer stereo so he could cruise around listening to his favorite bands. The speakers were the best part. When certain songs were played the sound would start with the front right speaker then go to the back right, then to the back left and finally to the front right. it would make this circle over and over again. Kevin fled that was the most awesome thing he ever heard.  He would sit in his car in the parking lot of the barrack for hours just listening to his car stereo.

a few weeks back Kevin and some of his friends left the base  to  get out of town for a while.  They came across a huge tree in the middle of no where that was next to a large stream. The tree had a rope swing on it and the group thought that would be a great spot to waste away a hot day and made a mental note of where it was  located. 

On this morning Kevin thought that would be a great birthday to just float and swim the day away. He went down the hall of the barracks to see who he could rustle up for such a trip. A lot of his buddies had already made plans but he found Sam, John (know to most as by his last name Hammer) and Steve. they said that were broke but Kevin assured them he had enough for some beer and sandwich's. They all agreed to meet at the tank in 30 minutes to head out on there newest adventure.

Before they left someone suggested to bring their Army issue air mattresses. Those green inflatable raft like cushions used to soften the ground when they had to sleep in the field. These would make a great floats so they all  went backup to there rooms to grab the floats 

After a short stop at the store for beer and food the friends were off. Kevin drove the hour and 1/2 trip to the swimming hole. Along we way the group listened to his stereo and told stories of how they used to spend weekend back  home. 

Hammer was from  Georgia and he always had tales about hunting or fishing. Steve was from Texas and always out did Hammer when it came to tall tales. Hammer  told of a 8 point buck he shot the year before joining the Army and Steve just had to beat that with a 12 point. Of course Kevin,  having never hunted in his life but being the smart ass of the group, jumped in to tell a tale of a  of 25 point buck he bagged. That set off a whole new line of talk with both saying there is no such animal. Kevin could not stop there

"I almost got gored before he pulled out his knife and gutted him right there."

The Group yelled in unison "Bullshit"

Hammer said 

"I hit the BS button on that one"

Steve started in "AAAAnt, AAAAnt... foul!! we all get free throws for that one"

This went on the whole ride to the stream. It was always great fun to hear about others guys home town and how they spent here days goofing off.

Once they got to the river it was not long before they taking turns swinging out on the rope and diving in the river. There were cannonballs, jack knifes and even a few belly flops  which caused the rest of the guys to call out  OUCH.. or OOOOO... After a while to just rest they took out their air matrasses and just  floated around  relaxing.  Kevin got a good idea

"How about you guys float by the tree and I will swing out and cannon ball to try and knock you off." 

As they floated by Kevin would holler Bonzi has he made huge splashes. Once he scored a direct hit on Sam which almost started a fight but put things cooled down after Sam held Kevin under the water long enough to almost drown him. 

After  awhile the group got out to have lunch when a van drove up. A group of guys got out and after introductions they told Kevin and his friends that they have been coming here since they were little fellows. Kevin offered them a beer which they gladly accepted .

Soon Kevin realized that they would be out of beer and told the group he was going to head to the store and get some more along with ice for the cooler. The van driver told him they knew short cut and would drive them if he wanted. Kevin accepted and Sam went along for the ride. 

They had gotten 5 miles down the road when the driver pulled over and asked his friends to check the spare time and it was making some weird noise. They got out of the van and after a lot of banging  coming from the back of the van they got back in. Just then the driver pulled out a big buck knife and started slapping in on his hand.

"You know we are going to take your money" said the driver.

Kevin did not know if he heard him right and looked at Sam for conformation. Sam just shrugged his shoulders not knowing what to do.

Again he said a little louder "you know we are going to take your money!" 

Kevin's could only reply "Well I guess that means your going to take out money"

Kevin pulled out his wallet and he handed over all the money he had which was about  $65.  

He  asked "can you at least give us $5 to make sure we have enough gas to get back to the base. "

The robbers looked at each other and for a minute Kevin thought they would give me back the $5 but the driver being a hard ass said.

" Nope tough luck guys. next time play in your own back yard. Now get out"

Kevin and Sam just stood there watching the van pull away. They realized the other guys were not checking the spare tire, they were taking off the license plates so they could not be identified.

Sam was the first to talk. 

"Now that sucked. I guess we best start walking"

Kevin replied with 

"At least they did not take our clothes.

That about doubled Sam over in laughter.

"We were just robbed at knife point and the only thing you can say is "At least they did not take our clothes" what a Maroon"

Kevin replied with 

"Well think about it. They could have taken our clothes and we would be walking back to the river in 100 degree heat with the sun beating down on areas of our bodies that have never seen the sun. Now that is a sun burn that I don't even want to think about"

The rest of the walk was filled with talk of scenes from old westerns where vultures were circling over head and the cowboys were squeaking out "water"... "water...

After awhile Kevin and Sam saw a car coming. As it got closer they realized it was the tank. Hammer was driving and once they in the car Hammer said

"There was just something about those guys that did not seem right. So we decided to come looking for you when you did not come back. I was surprised you got in the van with them."

After telling the story about the knife and losing all the money. Hammer said  

"I would have put up a fight. they would not get my money."

"Oh sure you would have brought down the Hammer on them.. "

With that the group broke out laughing.

 The trip back to the River was solemn. It seems like that sequence of events got everyone in a fowl mood.

"I guess its time Pack it up and head back to the Barracks" said Steve

Kevin hollered out a resounding "hell no"

"Its my birthday and I will not allow a bunch of butt heads ruin it for me."

late after noon after all the beer  and the sandwiches were long gone. Steve said

" Hay if we leave now we can make it back for dinner in the chow hall."

Everyone hurried to packed up and they started the drive back. Little did they realized that $5 Kevin has asked for would have come in handy. He had a little over 1/4 take of gas and he was not sure that would be enough to get them home. 

Pulling into El Paso the gas gauge had been on empty for a quite a few miles. They were all getting excited about actually making it home for dinner with about 10 minuites to spare. About that time the tank started to sputter and the engine quit. It was not a problem to coast to the curb since the power steering did not work with the car on or off. 

"Oh great I guess that means no dinner tonight"  Steve complained

"I might have some C-Ration crackers and jelly from the last field trip that I would share" replied Sam.

Just then Kevin put his hands in his pocket and felt something. Pulling it out he discovered it was a five dollar bill.

"Hay, I guess I didn't give them all of my cash" exclaimed Kevin

"you idiot!"  Hollowed Hammer. "We wouldn't be walking if you had checked your pockets.

"Yea! and would have been able to make chow " stated Steve as he slapped Kevin in the back of the head.

As they all approached the barracks the only think Kevin could think about was 

"This is the best worst birthday I could ever had hoped for"

 

New beginnings

 

As Kevin sat on the airplane looking out the window he had to wonder “What the hell am I doing?” It was his first time on an airplane. Actually, the closest he has ever been to an airplane was to seeing them fly overhead at  10,000 feet. He was glad to get assigned a window seat. Now he would get to see what the world looked like from that high up. Little did he know that it was the one of many firsts that he would experience during the next 3 years.

It was 6 months ago that Kevin  signed up for the Army. Now that the time was here he really did not want to go. Back in December when he was a senior in High School he did not know what he wanted to do after graduation. He had been in JROTC for 3 years and a lot of his friends were signing up for the military so he just followed suite.  Since graduating  he got hired working as a plumber and he found he could support himself and life after school was not as scary as it seemed months back.  But his decision to leave had already been made months ago and now he was bound to it.

After take off Kevin looked out the window in amazement. The sky below him looked like someone had taken a bag of cotton balls and scattered them everywhere. It looked as if you could jump from cloud to cloud and never fall to earth. The stewardesses brought drinks and peanuts. Kevin though he never been waited before by such nice lady's, except for Friday night after he took his girl friend home and he would meet the guys at pizza hut to goof off and talk about their dates or the movie they just saw.

There was a change of planes in Dallas on route to El Paso where he would take Basic military training. He had never been anywhere but the east coast and always lived near the ocean. Going to the dessert south west would be just one more of those firsts that he would experience. Upon arrival at El Paso international airport he was meet by a very nice Sargent. It seems odd that he was so nice because he has heard horror stories about how mean the Sargent's were during basic training. Looking back that Sargent must have been laughing inside knowing what was coming and coming soon.

Even the first experience on the base was pleasant. The recruiter had told Kevin not to bring a lot of clothes since they would take all his belongings from in during in-processing.  Most soldiers would loose so much weight during those weeks in basic training the clothes they brought did not fit anymore and they ended up donating them to a charity. So Kevin obeyed and traveled light.  Beside the clothes he wore he brought one change of clothes. 

The first few days were uneventful the Army issued  uniforms,  shaved off all the trainees hair, preformed medical exams, and thought some basic instruction  how to form up and march to different events. Kevin through to himself 

"what was all the hoopla bout how hard Basic training was this is a piece of cake". 

Afterward he even had to laugh when he thought back on it. After lunch one day the Sargent told the group  they were going on police call. The only point of reference Kevin had was when he was in grammar school and he was on the safety patrol. He wore a safety patrol belt and made sure kids did not walk on the grass or stopped traffic so kids could safely cross the street. He thought this should  be fun pretending to be a cop again. Little did he realize that was the term the military used for picking up trash. It was the first of many.. many police calls he did over the next 3 years. It seemed that when Drill Sargent did not have anything for trainees to do they made them pick up trash. Later trash was expanded to tumble weeds which Kevin learned to hate. Tumble weeds have needle like stickers that reminded Kevin or the briar patches back home. They would stick you even through the gloves the Army issued. 

As with most things  even this stage had to come to an end.  After getting in-processed they split the group in half and marched us up the hill to the barracks that was  called home for the next 10 weeks was located. They stopped the platoon in from of the barracks and that is when all hell boke loose. It was like sharks in a feeding frenzy. There were at least 6 drill sergeants that came out of no where and were all screaming at the same time. We all had our duffle bags full of clothes on our backs and were instructed to take them off and put them in front of us. 

"To slow" said the drill sergeant "put them back on and try again

The way to put a duffle bag on your back is to bend over and put your arms through the straps to grab the 60 pound bag and lift it over your head. Then drop the bag to seat snugly on your back. 

The drill sergeant then said

"to slow take if off"

""put it on"

"to slow take if off"

It did not take long to get exhausted in the El Paso 90-100 August heat. That is when things went from bad to worse. Huffing and puffing trying to get his breath back a Drill sergeant came up and said

"what's wrong with you dickweed you sound like a choo-choo train just stand there and take a rest. 

Then the first drill sergeant called a second drill sergeant and said 

"Hay Drill sergeant check this guy out he sounds like a train."

the second drill sergeant said

"why are you huffing and puffing are you a sissy? put that duffle bag back on"

That's when the first drill sergeant came back and said

"what are you doing? didn't I tell you to take a rest that that thing off"

the second drill sergeants came back and hollered 

"What's wrong with you can't you obey orders didn't I tell you to put that duffle back on"

this back and forth head game went for a few minutes with some pushups inserted until the Drills sergeants got distracted  to some other poor soul that the "sharks" went after. 

The whole time other drill sergeants were attacking trainees behind and all around  Kevin.  It was mass chaos with orders coming from all directions along with insults. Some Drill Sargent had a tendency to hit the trainee with the brim of their smokey the bear hats. then they would say

"Did you touch me?" 

"Hay Drill Sargent this guys touched me. Do you want to fight me is that it? Do you think your that bad to try and fight me?"

And both Drill sergeants would start in on the poor guy who was just trying to survive.

After a while Kevin assumed they got bored and told the group to pick up there gear and get inside barracks. Pick a rack (Bed) and stow your gear  in the locker.

About that time the second group of trainees were arriving out side  of the barracks. The guys already in the barracks could not resist  watching  out the window as the second group when through the same tortured  they had just endured. Afterward everyone could laugh about that first exposure to the drill sergeants. Everyone had there own opinion on which one was the meanest.

That was the first exposure to basic military training with a lot more to come. The drill sergeants would push the trainees to the limit and make them do things the never would have thought they could do.

It was  a true "Welcome to Hell"

What comfort zone

 

Three times a week Kevin’s Army unit would run at 6 o’clock in the morning. He found it hard to run before your first cup of coffee. During that time the Army had a recruiting commercial that said “we do more before noon then most do all day”.  Kevin kind of wondered how that would encourage people to join the Army. At least they could say “stop complaining we told you that you would be busy”.

On PT or physical training mornings the team would muster on the quad dressed in jogging shorts and tea shirts when instructed they would  line up in 4 squads that formed a platoon. There were 2 platoons in the Battery and they all ran in formation (everyone lined out in columns). The first sergeant would come out and holler.

“Fall-in”

With that everyone would scramble to their assigned position and stand at attention. The first sergeant would then give a series of command to start the unit on its way to the slow 3-4 mile run.

“Left face”

“Forward march”

“double time march”

That would get the unit moving in the down the road at a steady slow pace. During the run other leaders would come out of formation and take a position next to the running unit to call cadence. The leader would call it out in a song type manner and the entire unit would respond in unison.

Leader:

Jodie this and Jodie that

UNIT:

UPON YOUR LEFT

Leader:

Jodie’s got your Cadillac

UNIT:

YOUR LEFT YOUR RIGHT YOUR LEFT

Unit:

Singing left right

all night

in cadence count

Oh baby 1,2,3,4

upon your left

upon your left

upon your left your right your left. HAY

 

That cadence would continue with Jodie not only using your car but getting your girl, on your telephone and more. GI’s learned to hate Jodie but it prepared the guys for what normally happened. They get dumped by their girl friends when they got home.

After that little ditty was done that leader would fall back into his assigned position in the formation and another would jump out to call his favorite cadence.

Leader:

They say that in the Army the coffee’s mighty fine

It looks like muddy water and tastes like turpentine

UNIT:

Oh Lord, I wanna go

But they won’t let me go

Oh lord, I wanna go hoo-hoo-hooome- EH!

Leader:

They say that in the Army the biscuits mighty fine

One rolled off the table and killed a friend of mine

UNIT:

Oh Lord, I wanna go

But they won’t let me go

Oh lord, I wanna go hoo-hoo-hooome- EH!

 

This went on and on they would sing about training, pay, PT, food or anything they could think of. Once the leader got tired or ran out of ideas he would fall-in back to the formation and another would take his place. This pattern would take place for the entire run.

 

An interesting part of each run was at the end. About two blocks from the quad the current leader would cut the “Young hero’s” loose. That meant some of the guys would break free from the formation and “hall ass” racing back to the unit as fast as they could. Kevin was in excellent shape and took off every chance he got to show off. Sometimes he would come in first and sometimes second or third depending on how “hard” of a night he had the night before.

Anyway, Kevin had a reputation of being in good shape and he talked smack about how he was so good at wrestling in high school. That was the norm for most guys in the Army. They took liberty in embellishing the stories they told of the past life at the “crib”.

As it happened that each year the Army puts on amateur boxing exhibition on the base. The base gym manager would take all the volunteers and matches them against someone based on size, weight, and experience. It was great fun and built comradery and unit pride. Each unit’s soldiers would show up to cheer on their brother in arms. It was important since it was also for bragging rights for that year.

 This year the guys in Kevin’s unit were really after him to get in the ring and duke it with someone else from another unit.

“Come On Marks you are always telling us how tough you are” said one of his buddies.

“Yea! This is a chance to really put your money where your mouth is” said another.

All Kevin could think of was how scared even the thought of getting into the ring was. He had not had a fight since 3^rd grade and that one he had lost. As Kevin contemplated all this he kept going back to his wrestling days in high school. He was good at it. He had only wrestling Junior varsity but he beat everyone he had wrestled that year. Most coaches from other schools told Kevins coach “Kevin would be on the varsity team at any other school”. Toward the end of the season day the coach came to him and said.

“Hi Kev, Are you ready to go Varsity this week?”

Without thinking Kevin replayed “No I am not ready yet.”

He never got the chance again. He always looked back at that moment in his life as a defining moment. If he had only the courage and confidence to tell the coach “yes! I have been waiting for this moment for a long time.” Things might have been different. Collage, scholarships.. Girls.. Haha.. Kevin actually found he chuckled out loud as he though of the possibilities of that one decision.

His buddies were relentless nagging him to fight.

Come on Kev.. It will be great fun. The entire unit would come out to cheer you on. They all kept talking up his skills so much he Reluctantly he agreed and signed up.

The word got around quickly to everyone in the unit. Some laughed and told Kevin they would show up for the slaughter. Others encouraged him to get out there and kick butt!

Most of the time there was a noticeable separation between enlisted and officers. Officers were not allowed to fraternize with enlisted and vise versa.  But with this turn of events Kevin found the officers were telling Kevin that they were in his corner and go get’em. He was sure there was a lot of talk at the officers club about how good each unit fighters were. Bragging right in the military was huge, and this would be an entire year of bragging.

All this attention just made Kevin more and more nervous. It did not keep him from picking up the pace of running to get in better shape or even shadow boxing while running down the street. Kevin’s mind kept going back to the one fight he had years ago. All he wanted to do was not make a fool out of himself.

The big night came and it was not like pro boxing matches where the contestants came out from the locker room at the time of the bout. They sat around watching the other fights first. This increased Kevin’s  anxiety to a feverish level. The other bouts were not really boxing at all. The bell would ring and both contestants would dart to the center of the ring swinging wildly hoping that one punch would take the other boxer out. The crowd would be hooting and hollering the whole time. If a fighter went down the crowd would erupt in a defining roar. It was mayhem at it best.

Kevin sat quietly trying to figure how he was going to survive this mess he had gotten himself into. After much thought it came to him, Late in the Rocky movie Rocky was being beat to a pulp. He came up with a strategy to come out of the corner crouching almost like a duck walk. Kevin figured if he came in that low that most of those wild haymakers punches would go over his head. The others would be deflected by his arms protecting his head. He figured if he could get one good shot in he could save face even if he later got knocked out.

The time came and when call Kevin climbed in the ring. He felt his whole body shaking with fear and only hoped that no one else noticed. The bell rang and Kevin slowly duck walked the center of the ring. He never got there. The other fighter ran across the ring arms flailing like a wounded bird. Kevin stuck to his plan and stay low blocking a lot of the shots coming at him. It did not take long before his opponent was huffing and puffing and the blows started to slow down. Just then he saw his opportunity and he sprang up from his crouching position to catch is opponent right under the chin with a huge upper cut. Instantly he went to the mat. They told Kevin later that the crowd went wild with cheering. Kevin was to focused on the fight to hear anything. The match was not over yet. The opponent got up and started to close in on Kevin again. This time the haymakers had stopped and he was more cautious. He would not fall for that trick again.

Now, growing up Kevin spent many hours on the air hockey table and was fast with the left back hand. He decided to use that type of punch on his opponent. It was not a jab or a hook it was more like shooting at the air hockey puck. It was not a hard blow, it was more distracting then anything. Kevin found that like in air hockey he could make that same move over and over very fast and every time Kevin would hit him, even though it was not hard, he closed his eyes and lost his bearing. Just then Kevin again saw his opening. While trying to get his bearing due to all the “slap” punches he left himself open. Kevin came in again with a straight right hand directly to his nose. Down he went again this time he did not get up in time. As his opponent was counted out Kevin ran around the ring with his hands up and jumped on the second rope like in a movie with his arms up in victory. His mind quickly went to “ I wonder if this is how it would feel to wrestle varsity”. With that thought he found he chuckled out loud once more.

For a few days Kevin was the talk of the unit. Congratulations came from all over even some of the mess hall cooks congratulated him.  He picked up a new nick-name that stuck with him for the rest of his military tour. He was to be know from then on as Rock. The “trash” talk came to a new level but no one cared. It was a great night and one of their buddies had looked fear in the face and lived to tell it. Rock would never let on how really scared he was to get into that ring.

THE CONCERT

At some point in life people sit back and wonder how they got there. Life gets so fast.. family.. kids.. work.. we stumble through sometimes taking the path of least resistance and sometimes taking a path that is more determined and focused.

The early years are easy… its like floating and as the musical group Kansas says “Dust in the wind” we are blown in different directions and sometime that path taken and sometimes it gets abandoned for a more secure or pleasant path.

They say that submarines cannot detect other sub’s until they slow down and listen. That happened to Kevin recently, he stopped running forward long enough to take a look at where is came from. He was questioning why he felt different ways about topics. Some feeling were strong and unmovable while others he could go either way. He was smart enough to know that who he is today is an accumulation of all his experiences but how did he get to that point in his life.

 What Kevin found out was surprising even to himself. Kevin left home a 18 to make his mark in the world. Problem was he was madly in love with my high school sweet heart. Within 6 months he found for her it was puppy love.. for me it was a train wreck. Broken hearted he was forced to stand on my own two feet, Think for myself and dare I say, Grow up.

Music came alive for the first time. One guy in the barracks would play Queen's Champion of the world every morning at 6am. I guess he decided that the rest of the guys needed that motivation each morning. Kevin learned to hate that song and still gets his blood pressure up even today when he hears it. Kevin's Met Dave the during the first days of basic training and quickly became best friends. Dave was all about music and that would impact Kevin soon enough. The two would sit and listen to hard rocker like Ted Nugent, Led Zeppelin, Foreigner and the band that ended up being Kevin's all time favorite Styx.

Dave's love of music altered Kevin's path in dramatic ways. Styx was coming to town and Kevin had never gone to a concert. Coming from a small town where most of the kids just went to the park and played basketball or racquetball going to a concert made Kevin nervous. Up to take point the impact music on Kevin was minor to say the least. He liked some oldies and some new stuff. After signing up for the Army to work on Radars  his father was telling him he needed to go change the job he chose.

“ Son your not smart enough to work on Radars, If I were you I would take auto mechanics. There will always be cars and they when they break you will be there to rack in the money” His father told Kevin during one of the few discussion they ever had.

“But I don’t like working on cars” Replied Kevin.

“What do you know? You have not lived long enough to even know what you want”

Now that got under Kevin’s skin. How dare him say stuff like that. Kevin lashed out with only quote he know.

“You can’t even run your own life, I be damned if you run mine”  

It surprised Kevin that he pulled that quote from a song. It was the start of knowing how music will direct your thoughts.

When Kevin and Dave left for the concert Dave was saying how many concerts he had been to and not to worry. It was going to be great fun

"You will love it" said Dave.

As  the two guys left the car they were giggling like little kids. The Concert is going to be a blast Though Kevin as they started heading for the building.

Kevin was amazed at the number of people headed into the building. They seemed to come from all walks of life. He always liked to people watch and coming to a concert was like going to a buffet line. Lots of choices to watch. He saw people wearing clothes from torn jeans to dockers. They all seemed excited and there was a electric feel in the air. He had to wonder if when the flower children of the 60’s talked about the aura about them this is what they were referring to.  He had seen movies where “hippies” would talk about the vibes someone was putting out or “why are you so negative man”. All the people migrating toward the door seemed to radiate their emotionally or spiritually aura  that Kevin found fascinating.

About that time Dave poked Kevin and said

“Come on dude we need to get in here”

“What’s the rush the concert don’t start for over an hour” Kevin replied.

“Don’t you want to get a good spot in the mash pit?”

Showing his ignorance about concerts Kevin replied “What’s a mash pit”

“That is where all the action is. You try to get as close to the stage a possible. I have seen drummer throw their drum stick or the guitarist tosses a pic. Some bands even throw some of there clothes. Come on quit day dreaming and lets get in there”

Inside it was complete mayhem. Trying to fight our way toward the front of the of the mash pit was a challenge to say the least. By the time we got to a good spot his feet were killing him from getting stepped on. Sometime is seemed like a worm hole opened up in the crowd. Within seconds people would back up opening a huge hole in the crowd. Looking closer it was innocent people trying to get out of the way of two guys fighting. All Kevin could think was one guy must have stepped on the other guys  foot. With that thought Kevin gave a quick giggle before getting back to concentrating on moving forward.

After a while the warmup band preformed and the guy next to Kevin told him.

“Pay attention to this band. They are good and someday they will be the headline group and you can say you saw them when they were just a backup for a big name band” the stranger said.

Kevin took a mental note and went back to enjoying the band. Suddenly everything went to total darkness. It freaked Kevin out at first and the crowd was dead silent. Just then low back ground lights came on and smoke started to roll across the stage. “This must be the start of the main event” thought Kevin. The headline band Styx then burst on to the stage playing one of there top songs “Crystal ball”. In a split second the crowd went from dead silent to a defining roar!!

Kevin got caught up in all the excitement and was waving his arms and bouncing around just like everyone in the “Pit”. But he was also listening to the lyrics. Through all the noise and music he could only catch part of the song.

I used to like to walk the straight and narrow line
I used to think that everything was fine
Sometimes I'd like to sit and gaze for days through sleepless dreams

I wonder what tomorrow has in mind for me
Blah BLAH Blah…
Perhaps I'll get a chance to look ahead and see
Soon as I find myself a crystal ball

Tell me, tell me where I'm going
I don't know where I've been
Blah BLAH Blah…
And then tell me again

My heart is breaking, my body's aching
And I don't know where to go
Blah BLAH Blah..
I've just got to know

WOW!!! This song spoke right to the core of his soul. Since he left home and his girl friend dumped him is was lost.  He always did do what he through was right, His heart was aching, if only he knew what was next. He did not know who he was anymore and want desperately to find his grounding again.

As the two left the concert Kevin thought about how much fun that was and could not wait for the next concert. Later he would see bands like Bad Company, Aero-Smith, Alice Cooper and much more. All he knew he was having the time of his life!

 

Dazed and confused

 

Now this is classic. It took me an hour to find my BLOG. I posted a comment on some ones blog and an not sure I get it posted or not. Some how I think I created 2 blogs so often I am not sure which blog I am in...

I am still learning and will not let this program beat me!!!!

It is a journey for sure. Fear not I wake up in the morning thinking about things to write.... As soon as I master the app there will be more to come.

 This is the first test. Can I maneuver in the page and create a post. 

Part of me says,

"Don't do it. you will say stupid stuff and they will all laugh..."

Part of me says,

"You dream of writing and telling your story so go ahead and do it!!"

So the adventure begins. My story will follow and all I can do is hope that it encourages and inspire those who dare to read my rhetoric......