Everyone remembers their first concert. Mine happened on the last day of 8th grade.
The day was perfect, we had a half day of school and it was the start of summer vacation. The weather was amazing and a few friends and I left school to walk to a nearby park before the concert. How I convinced my mom that this was not life threatening was beyond me. I was not even allowed to play in the front yard much less walk several miles unattended. It was a beautiful sunny day so we enjoyed the walk and once reaching the park we decided to sit outside the pool and watch the swimmers for a while. It just so happens that a boy we despised was in the pool area swimming. It also just so happens that I had something interesting with me that day. Finger covers. That's right, I said finger covers. See, my mom was working in a cafeteria at the time and they had these mini circles that you would roll over your finger to cover any cuts you had. Very sanitary. However, these things looked exactly like tiny little condoms. Commence the worst thing I have ever done to demean someone. We called the boy over to the fence like we wanted to talk. Unsuspectingly he walked over. That is when we handed him the miniature condom and told him that we thought it would be "just his size". I cringe just thinking of his face. But.....he totally deserved it.
Laughing hysterically we finally left the park and headed home to pile into the car so we could head out to our first concert. This was the late nineties so we were heading to see the coolest band of the time, No Doubt. It was going to be two friends and me escorted by my mother of course. We arrived at the amphitheater and started our thousand mile journey to the entrance. There really should have been a shuttle service or something. Something else you need to know about me at this time....I had recently discovered the word "fuck" and thought it was the coolest word to say. I used it at school with my friends and tried to fit it in as many times as possible in each sentence. Needless to say, I did not do this once I got home with my mother. That said, we were about 900 miles into our trek having pleasant conversation when it happened. I was so used to saying it around my friends that I completely forgot and loudly used the word in a sentence directed at my mother. Her jaw about dragged the ground as she stared at me like I was an alien instead of her sweet innocent daughter. I quickly picked up my pace and the last 100 miles to the entrance flew by.
We were pretty psyched about this concert because our tickets were in the orchestra pit. We didn't really know what that was but we knew it meant up front. Once we finally made it to our seats we realized that we didn't have seats. We were standing in a big open area right in front of the stage while the rest of the crowd filed into their seating. We were immediately let down realizing that while we would have a good view, we were also going to have to stand for the next several hours. We were pretty bummed about having to stand but still, we could touch the stage! That had to be awesome right?
Wrong. After talking to a few people in the area we quickly realized that this was no ordinary standing area. We had accidentally signed ourselves up for the mosh pit. And the area was getting very crowded. How many people did they think they could fit into this "orchestra" seating. As we started getting cozy with our fellow moshers we noticed a few cute boys our age were also in the area. My friends being much more brave than I actually went up to them and started a conversation! Turns out they were a year older than us and had come to the concert unsupervised. Also, they were super into moshing. Ugh!
As soon as the concert began they started thrashing around and banging into people. But they were the ONLY ones. Everyone else was standing peacefully listening the the music. It's not like we were at a Metallica concert. Even though this was a little weird we continued talking to them throughout the concert. Strangely enough, one of them was talking mainly to me. Boys never talked to me so I was fairly confused. I felt so grown up. I was a high schooler now and boys were talking to me.
The concert itself was not very memorable but when it was over the boy asked for my number. I am surprised I didn't shoot off into space I was so giddy. I didn't even notice the 1000 miles back to the car. This was the first boy to ask me out. Talk about a memorable first concert.
To make a long story shorter, I talked to the boy several times after the concert and we even scheduled a date. But it was not to be and I never saw him again. However......
seven years later I was dating a charming asshole of a guy. Turns out he went to school with the boy I met at the No Doubt concert. What a small world. They were best friends. And the boy...of course.....was now into dudes.
