gas money

As gray and cold as the winter can be, still...there are those who's sunshiney good spirits lift and enliven. ( Dont' you agree?! )... Like the young 'uns that put on their show this weekend (the one where my saxaphone playing son participated in)- at "The Cell" in Mason City, Illinois. This place is a teenage wonderland. I think it's pretty cool how they allow these bands in there and offer up a place for the young folks to hang. I was the oldest one there. At first, I felt a bit out of place- I shied away into the corners. I blended. I did not allow my parental attitude to stray beyond my own nose. I'm so glad I went. The first band was from St. Louis, Cake Eater- these guys were amazing! Heck, they couldn't have been more than 19 and they played with the enthusiasm and hard earned skill of guys who'd been playing together for years. They were really good, I kept looking around to see if anyone else noticed how tremendous this group was- but all the kids were dancing! It's kind of like the Charleston- the dance they do to this kind of music. It looked like so much fun and was awesome to watch. Sometimes other kids would run in and out of the crowd, colliding with the dancers, but I learned that that is a normal thing too. That was funny to see, I told my daughter, "My God...the raging hormones there! Like big old mountain goats bashing there heads together." She laughed, and agreed. I meandered over to the t-shirt table to see their wares, a girl with multiple piercings blankly looked at me. (In truth, the first thing I noticed were the piercings and the attitude, I did not match it though...)I smiled at her and started a conversation. "Where you from?" etc.... When all was said and done, I said-"Well, it's really cold outside, and if you do not have dependable transportation and get stranded you must call me, that's too long of a drive on a cold night. Here's my number, I have a big old farm house you could flop in if you had to." She seemingly never changed the attitude, the somewhat blankness, so I said "good bye, love the graphics on the tshirts" and wandered back to my corner. My son's band "Don't Mess With Winkie" started to play. Imagine confetti in music form. Yep! Thats their excitement! Trombones and trumpets and two saxaphones, guitars and drums and these guys all dancing on stage- I was blown away. How could you blare all that out, mix it together, filter it through many voices all at once and come out with reggae/ska/blues/jazz? I don't know, I saw it and heard it with my own ears and eyes and I still can't believe the sound!!! Of course I wanted to dance! But my youngest, Lily- gave me the look, like "don't you dare get out of that chair, it won't be pretty." So, not to embarress my children- I stayed put. But believe me, the opportunity was there to share some misery of times past, to repeat their humiliating history...to get back at them! But, alas- I could not, no- the music, the elevation of all spirits in that room would have suffered, so...I sat and enjoyed the joy. OH, I almost forgot...the girl with the piercings, the one who seemed so unaffected by anything...she brought me over a tshirt. For free. Because she thought I was so kind to have invited them to the farm should there be trouble. These kids barely had gas money to get home, they could have sold more tshirts in order to make up the deficit- but they gave me one for free, wouldn't accept any money for it. Hmmmm....aren't teenagers wonderful??!!? Sometimes... they're sublime.
Do take care-