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Sunday, August 21, 2011

Rockin' By the River


The year was 1992. I was 16 years old and I had just completed my first year at Helena High School. I spent the summer mowing lawns with my brother and cousin. We cleaned up, it was amazing. I flew to New Mexico to work and backpack for a month. I drove a 12 year old 1980 Dodge D-50. I was an orange piece of crap, but I didn't know any better. I had a Sony Discman and I used a cassette adapter to listen to my few compact discs. It was an amazing summer.

Fast forward to 2011, 19 years later. I am alive! I have lived in Davenport, Iowa for two weeks. My wife drives a minivan and I drive a 10 year old SUV. She still uses a cassette adapter but for an iPod, I have a new stereo that allows me to plug into my iPod that has thousands of songs. Some of those songs are from CDs I bought in 1992. One of those CDs is the Gin Blossoms. They had reasonable success. Now instead of misadventures with my brother and cousin, I am drag my kids around to what I hope will be fun events.

This weekend was River Roots Live. A pretty amazing event located at a park by the Mighty Miss. They have a BBQ rib competition and back to back bands. They play on one stage while the other band breaks down and another sets up. Friday night The Gin Blossoms played and I wanted to see them. This event draws about 20,000 people, so the kids and I went early.


Ol' Man River

The Chick was less than impressed. She started to fade after the first band, which was really good. It was The Giving Tree Band. Then there was some bluesy band, I cannot remember the name, though they were good. The kids needed a snack and something to drink and it was down to business. Vance had a great time.


Vance drummed for about an hour. I was tired, so was he.



Drumming to the Gin Blossoms.

1 comment:

  1. Awesome, glad to see you haven't forgot how to have fun! I was afraid Vance might use your head but glad to see you stayed intact.

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