The TP Memento

The first time my best friend D and I went to a Tom Petty Concert we were cute little 30 somethings, although it is only in retrospect that we realized that.  D had never been to a concert before and since she IS my best friend I always want to share what I love with her so I asked her to come with me.  J Geils Band was also playing the concert that night so we did have a rockin great time.  Since we are both borderline hoarders and cannot seem to part with anything, she still has the original ticket stub taped to the vinyl album as a memento. D loved her first concert and we saw TP a few years later with Bob Dylan.  TP seems to make it to the Gorge in George, WA almost every year and this year I told D that it was probably about time we go see him again when he comes.  As fate would have it he was scheduled to appear again this year in June.  I hopped right on ordering those tickets so we went again in June 2010.
This summer has been a challenge with my mom being so ill I didn't want to be too far away in case of an emergency...but we took a chance and bought our tickets anyway.  Another complication was that my granddaughter was graduating from high school the day after the concert, since the concert is a 4 hr drive from my house, that meant staying up late the night before, getting up at 0 dark thirty and hauling ass back home to do my duty as the proud grandma and celebrate my grand-baby's awesome achievement.
The Gorge is one of the most awesome concert venues-it is about 4 hrs east of Seattle, in the desert and there are some beautiful sunsets to enjoy.

                                              








The seats we purchased were in the General Admission section, first come, first served.  Last time we went to the Gorge to see Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell, we ended up way at the top of the nosebleed area so we didn't see much.

This time we lucked out.  We had a little tail-gate party in the parking lot.  We met some great fun people  that we were joking around and having a few beers with.  They were all Doctors and Nurses.  We shared our story about our first TP concert with them.  It just so happens that D brought the vinyl album with the original ticket stub taped to it to the concert.  Her goal was to get this album signed for me as a gift.  When we told our new-found friends about this they asked where we were sitting and they said that would never happen where we were sitting.  D assured them that she had the tenacity to MAKE it happen.  She wasn't kidding about that!  She asked the cop who showed us where to park.

D:  Hey can you do me one more favor?
Cop:  What can I do for you?
D:  See this alblum (yes she calls them alblums)?  The ticket here is from the first concert me and my girlfriend went to and I want to get this signed for my Brenny
Cop:  Ma'am I don't have that kind of access...I would lose my job!
D:  Well we will give you a beer
Cop:  Um you're not supposed to have alcohol here ma'am. I didn't see that

Anyway...that didn't happen!  As soon as they opened the gates to let everyone into the concert, the Doctor we had been drinking with came over and presented us with four upgraded tickets that their group purchased for us so we could sit in the floor area...tickets worth about double the price of our tickets.  They  really wanted to help us get that album signed.  WOW...we were thrilled beyond belief and I am sure their Karma is stupendous for that random act of kindness!!

Nobody could have tried harder than D to get that album signed,  She bugged all of the staff, the sound guys, told the story to all by-standers everyone in the place knew us!  There was a guy who had a 2nd row seat and let her stand in the second row with him to see if she could get TP's attention to get it signed.  D said she could see every nose hair...but we never got it signed.  But I LOVE my girl for trying!!