if I have to cut my hair........

[SicilianMother@xxxxxxx]

I remember, back when I was 12ish, and don't remember how I knew to do this, 
but after finding a chaperone that my parents would approve of to see me first 
stadium concert, I put my mom's check, and a handwritten note "please send me 
two tickets to see the Who at the sports arena.  They are my favorite group".

After ceremoniously putting the letter in the mail box, my best friend and I 
walked home.  The first person I ran into was my brother.  I told him, "I just 
sent in my order for Who tickets!"  He said "you remembered to put in a self 
addressed stamp envelope, right?".

Woops!  Shit! I blew it!!  After all the work to get my sister and her 
boyfriend to go with me,(who ended up making out for the whole concert!),  raised 
the money, etc....now I won't get to my tickets?  I don't think so!!!

The only thing to do is get to the letter before the mail man does.  We sat 
for 3 or 4 hours at least.  My girlfriend had to beat the street lights home so 
I waited another hour or so by myself.  Finally the mail man arrived.  "I 
need to put this in the envelope that is in here".  "I am not supposed to let you 
do that".  "Please, this is my favorite group, Plleeeezzze?".  He gave in to 
my 12 year old enthusiasm.  Ahhh...........that was my first experience at 
getting Who tickets.

Another fun memorable experience involved waiting all night at a 
ticketmaster.  After the sun came up, they finally gave out numbered wrist bands and 
picked a number to start with.  My number put me in the first 20 people of the 
line.  Didn't need to stand in line all night for THAT,  but it was fun to be a 
part of the whole process.

Yesterday, I told my dad that I was going to get tickets to see the Who, 
again,(and waiting for the sigh of disapproval.......nope, no sigh!).  I told him 
how fun it used to be, to wait in line all night for tickets and how I missed 
that.  He said, "I don't think I would wait like that for ANYONE, 'cept 
Jesus".  "Oh, it's fun dad, you get together with people and it is like a party". 

No party today.  If this would have been a month ago, I'd be celebrating with 
my friends on the list.  But, that won't be happening either, those days are 
over.  But, one thing that no one can take away from me is MY love for the 
group.  It never began as something I shared with others.  It doesn't need to be 
so now either.  I don't care what people think, or say to me, I never have 
when it comes to the Who.   That is part of the beautiful rebellion that Pete 
sings about.....why should care?

Johanna