Thank You For Being Present In The Moment

Was this concert sponsored by AARP?  I looked around the Fox Theater, and almost everyone in the audience was about my age.

We were all at the Fox Theater to go back to 1969, the year of the Moon Landing, Woodstock, and the Vietnam War --- the year when Creedence Clearwater Revival put out three albums.

John Fogerty was on tour.  To set the 1969 mood before his concert began, a large screen at the back of the stage displayed a hippie mantra: THANK YOU FOR BEING PRESENT IN THE MOMENT.

  

I waited to see if the concert really would take me back to 1969. 

The large screen at the back of the stage started a movie.  The movie showed hippies in long hair --- that was not me.  The movie showed hippies wearing beads and bell-bottoms --- that was not me.  The movie showed hippies decked out in tie-dye --- that was not me.

The movie showed people at 3 Days of Peace & Music at Woodstock --- that was not me, even though I had been visiting my parents in August 1969 and I almost decided to ask my parents if they needed their car for the weekend because I wanted to drive upstate to a music festival, but I did not ask them and I did not go.

Then the movie showed a door gunner in a UH-1 helicopter --- that was me.

In 1969, I was in the Army.  I was a 67N20.  This meant that the Army had trained me to repair UH-1 helicopters, which were the work horses of the war in Vietnam.  The Army also trained me to be a door gunner, just like the guy in the movie playing on the large screen at the Fox Theater. 

It was the door gunner image in the movie that took me right back to 1969. 

I fell into the mood of the concert.  The movie ended, and John Fogerty came out on stage. Familiar Creedence Clearwater Revival songs blasted out into the theater.  I stood; sometimes I swayed to the infectious music; I sang out “Down on the corner, out in the street”. 

I looked at the other people in the audience who were swaying and singing out.  Thanks to John Fogerty, it looked like they were remembering what they were like 46 years ago: younger and slimmer, with long hair and wearing beads and bell-bottoms, all decked out in tie-dye.

And thanks to John Fogerty, I was remembering what I was like 46 years ago: younger and slimmer, having short hair and wearing fatigues and wondering if the Army would ship me out to Vietnam.

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Come on and ride the wind! A 4-minute video promoting John Fogery's tour in Canada, featuring a Volkswagen minivan, of course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV0-93vaSAk

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  Find out more at http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com