Recently, I was going through an old foot locker I have that most of my life’s memories are stored in. As I went through everything, I pulled out a box that I had not opened in forever. It was a mix and match of a lot of things I have acquired in my life but one thing I pulled out, made me feel like a teenager again.
Concert tickets. Yes, concert tickets.
That might be a strange concept to our youth of today and that is okay, because we now live in a digital world, not material. Sorry, Madonna. The first concert I ever attended was on August 17, 1982, the English Beat opened up for The Police at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium. Memories that I had long since forgotten about came rushing back.
All because of a ticket.
Then, my next concert. A young John Cougar was opening for Heart at Municipal Auditorium a few weeks later. Once again, almost every moment of that show came flooding back to me. Cougar had just released ‘Jack & Diane’ and everyone went crazy when he played that. He was in high rotation on MTV and it was a great concert. I had not thought about that concert in forever, yet there I was, 13 years old again.
I found more and more tickets and again, all the great memories were dancing in my head. Then I thought, my son and daughter won’t be able to look in a foot locker when they get my age and see that old crumpled ticket that when you picked up, was like a new game of Jumanji. You were instantly transported back in time.
I didn’t know whether to be sad or mad because of this. Yes, they will form their own memories as they journey through life but my goodness, these tickets felt so good in my hands. What will my kids have, screenshots? Do screenshots count? I don’t know and we will have to see.
The same thing about the newspaper. Nothing like seeing your name in the newspaper, don’t care if you are 15, 25, 35 or 55. Screenshot does not work for that, trust me.
Anyway, for me, I am so glad I kept those tickets because when I am feeling old, I will just pull them out and feel young again.
Also, whatever happened to that John Cougar guy?
