During a short cold snap we had this winter I went to a local concert almost on a whim.
A gal in one of my
MeetUp groups wanted to see the Canadian rock band Sum41 play at Ace of Spades downtown. I went
looking for the band on YouTube because their name sounded familiar. I
discovered I did remember their music so I was in.
It was due to the
cold snap that I happened to be wearing a pastel BIG fuzzy sweater. So there I
was looking like a suburb dweller amidst a sea of urban youth.
It was one of
the only times I felt I was showing my age. The club was warm but I was dressed
to avoid carrying a coat for my travels to and from the buildings etc.
The MeetUp gal did
not seem to notice that I felt conspicuous. She had on a thin black tank with
her hair in pigtail braids although we looked to be closer in age than to the
median of the crowd. She had a beer.
I abstained. Then she said she wanted to
get closer to the stage. I was happy hanging out in a far corner by the bar. Feeling
emboldened by her we headed into the less than standing room only crowd. She
forged ahead and I stayed close to her. Everyone was everywhere.
There had been warm
ups before the band I was there to see. I was arriving late due to an evening
class. Now that I am surrounded by a sea of young humans with barely room to
breathe I begin to hear what all is going on or about to.
One teen guy says “When
the music starts we are gonna go crazy wild.”
I am thinking there
is NO room for that. As it is people are putting their hands on you and already
pressed up against you like a bad date. If they are going somewhere they
shuffle by but not usually very quickly.
A random girl grabbed my hips and
swished me so we were dancing like a conga line. Then she was gone. Next a
random guy came near me and did the same. He moved over to the gal I was with
and he stayed with her. He went from holding her at her hips I think to holding
her around the waist.
Still we were
waiting for the band to perform. The crowd shuffled a bit and us in it.
Suddenly the guy in front of us who we were thus obliged to touch and be
pressed against was all sweaty from head to waist.
We shuffled away from him
but my gal pal did not lose her escort. I asked her if he was getting a little
too friendly and if she needed my help.
We could have always
grabbed each other and pretended to be a serious couple if we felt we were
being preyed upon. She told me keeping the one lone guy in check was better
than having a host of random guys pressing on her from behind so things seemed
ok.
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