For the past couple of years, I've gazed longingly at ads for Willie Nelson concerts and commented that I would like to go sometime. Bubba said if he was ever close enough, he would take me. (I think he meant if he came to our little town.) One day Amy sent me a text that said, "Guess what.", I responded, "You're having a baby!" and then "You're getting a dog.". Finally she said, "You and I are going to see Willie Nelson on September 25." She said, "I'm taking you." (That translates into "Not only am I buying your ticket, I'm buying a second one for me and I don't care a thing about going.") That gesture all by itself translates into sacrificial love. (I told you we did a good job.)
I think I should take a moment to express my Willie Nelson feelings. Basically, I like a lot of his music. I like his support of the American farmer. I don't admire him for his use of marijuana, but honestly something has prolonged his life. I admire the way he settled his issues with the IRS by working hard. I do realize that I should have seen him twenty years ago if it was only about the music; however, he is an American icon and I wanted to see him before he came to the "Roll me up and smoke me when I die" part.
I had also decided that I wanted to make this trip to Atlanta by myself. I think it is good for me. I did it last year and enjoyed it. I knew that it was not going to be much of a weekend for Bubba and we had just had a visit with Amelia two weeks prior to this. So I travelled alone and made it there and back safely. More about the rest of the weekend in another post.
We left home early enough Friday evening to locate the venue and had planned to eat dinner somewhere and come back. When we got there, we found a really good parking place (free) close to the gate so we decided to just sit in the car and snack before going in. We had wine in dixie cups, havarti cheese, crackers and chocolate coated almonds. What a meal! Anyone that knows me knows that I don't like the taste of wine; however, I have discovered that the second cup is much better than the first. We ate and drank and talked about some of the characters we were seeing and hearing. It was way more fun than going to a restaurant.
I was planning on wearing a hat to the concert. I made a hatband out of a red bandana (like Willie's) for my hat and made one for Amy to wear. I sent her pictures of the hats and she said that she was not going to wear that hat. She was going to wear a ball cap. I insisted that she put it on just long enough for a picture and she did....and she wore it all evening. (It really looked cute on her!)
We had pretty good seats. There was an opening band and then there was Jamey Johnson who sang some songs I had heard before, but he sang them all so slow. Maybe that was his interpretation. It didn't matter because Amy and I had more entertainment going on than we could handle anyway.
To Amy's right was an older (older than me) man and his wife. To my left were four older (older than me) women. But in front of all of us were six of the most obnoxious drunks I've ever seen in my life. They stood in front of us for the opening act and we would have probably told an official if they hadn't sat down eventually, but watching them was very entertaining;I had never seen such in all my 66 years.
There were three men who looked to be in their 40's and their "dates" appeared to be in their 20's. The head drunk looked like a young professional type. He wore glasses and had curly hair which he must have loved because he constantly ran his fingers through his curls. (Maybe it was a new look for him.) He was dressed in jeans with lots of rhinestones on the hip pockets, no belt, and a long sleeve denim shirt with more rhinestones on the back. Each hip pocket contained a flask, the contents of which were soon consumed by the group. In addition, they were drinking tall cans of beer and some mixed drinks from the concession stand.
The second in command looked the shorter version of an assistant warden I worked with at one time. The third man was a little plump with glasses and appeared to not be as involved in the drinking as the others yet he definitely had too much to drink to be the designated driver.
The girls were too young to be with these guys. Two of them were pretty in a trashy sort of way and the third had on a ball cap and looked like the kind of person they interview on tv around here when a tornado passes through.
The leader drunk obviously thought he was pretty cute. He would on occasion stand up, pull up his shirt, and shimmy around. Sometimes he would pull his trashy girl up to dance with him. He had his hands all over her, but he also seemed to enjoy hugging his buddies a lot also. (What did that mean?) Once he was hugging his buddy (the assistant warden type) and his buddy's date was feeling leader drunk's butt. The weather was cool and there was either a light or misty rain the whole times. Most everyone had on rain ponchos or hooded rainwear except for the drunk performers in front of us. (Would it be totally wrong to hope that they all came down with a bad cold or even the flu the next morning?"
I know for a fact that if Darryl or Bubba had been with us, they would have said something. But you've got to admit that it makes for a better story than writing about Jamey Johnson's long slow songs.
Finally it was time for Willie. His band got set up and out he came. The crowd was excited. (Me, too!) And as he started to sing, I began to smell something. I screwed up my nose and looked at Amy with a question in my eyes. Could it be? Yes it could. The six in front of us had lit up a joint and were passing it back and forth. And the group in back of us were doing the same thing. And all across the amphitheater I could see the moving glow. A friend on Facebook told me not to inhale, but I had to breathe, didn't I? So this was a first for me. I've had correctional officers tell me that when you walk into a dorm of inmates you can immediately distinguish the smell if it's there and now I know what they mean.
To use the word of a friend who had been to a Willie Nelson concert several years before, it was "lackluster". Willie talked the lyrics more than he sang them. His guitar playing was as good as any I've ever heard. His sister's piano playing was great in a honky tonk kind of way. He referred to her as his "baby sister", but I looked her up and she's 84! She had someone help her to the piano. When anyone had a solo instrumental part, I noticed that Willie was wiping sweat and drinking water. On several of his songs, the lights would shine on the audience and we would sing them. I did that and Amy just shook her head. (I did that well after the second cup of wine had worn off, so it was just crazy me kicking in.) I didn't notice that Willie forgot any of the lyrics. He performed for about an hour. It's kind of inspirational for those of us who are getting older. If Willie and his sister can keep on keeping on, maybe I can too! I just saw an ad for his New Year's Eve show somewhere so it doesn't look like he has plans to quit for a while yet. I asked Amy her favorite song and she replied, "The last one!".
Afterwards we had waffles and bacon at a Waffle House on the way home. It was 11:30! Do you know that the week before I got married I had to be home by 10:00? Needless to say, I slept so good that night. It was an evening I'll never forget.
In the words of my friend who hit the nail on the head:
"When I saw Willie, it was sorta lack-luster but I realized a geriatric guitar picker that still attempts to please is worthy of attendance. Farm-aid has to be draining but his dedication to the American farmer is commendable. You will enjoy the nostalgic experience w/Amy regardless of whether he brings down the house or not."
Amy, I had such a good time and you were a good sport about it all. I probably should remind you that Neil Diamond is already 74 and time could be running out on him. I hear he'll be doing concerts in Australia next year. What do you think?
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