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Random thoughts from his grown fans, on finally meeting an untouchable man. |
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I almost missed out on being a Bay City Roller fan. It was sort of my fault. I mean, here I was a girl not quite a teenager, who was shy and was not in the in crowd. I had a few close friends and that was it.
I remember being in Brownie or was it Girl Guides? My dad had picked me up after our weekly meeting. He got talking to our District Leader who lived a few blocks from our house. Her nickname was "Scotty", she was from Scotland. Dad asked her to come over for coffee and then he'd drive her home. She accepted.
When we arrived home, my mom and my sister Cindy were watching this t.v. show. I think they called it "And Now The Bay City Rollers". All I could see were some guys on stage and these girls who kept pulling them off. Scotty went into great deal about the band telling us all she knew about them. I of course didn't pay any attention to what was said and lost interest. How could these girls be tearing these guys apart like that? Little did I know that I should have paid attention and how that first night changed the rest of my life!!
The next day in English class, there was a lot of talk about the show. I still didn't know what the big deal was. Someone had the lp "The Bay City Rollers", I call it the plaid album since that was the way the cover was decorated. They talked the English teacher into playing it. I got a glimpse of the cover and thought there was a couple cute guys in the band.
One of the record stores had a sale on that very lp. I wanted to be part of the cool group so I convinced mom to take us to get the lp. After that I was hooked!! I think we had that album warped in a week from all the playing it got!!
Summer came and they were coming to town!! Cindy and I wanted to go and so did my cousin Sharon. My parents said there was no way we could go alone, so we finally convinced my mom, and Sharon's mom, my aunt Jean to go!!
We got to the stadium and the line was getting long. We managed to somehow get ourselfs half way up the line without getting thrown to the back of the line. Sharon brought her friend Helen who was 18 at the time.
The security guards came out and asked everyone to move back so that they could open the doors, we proceeded to move back, but those at the back saw that the doors were opened and pushed forward. It took a while to get the message through that we had to move back and stay back to get in!! Helen and I got seperated from the group and she told me to hold on and not let go. When we went in, she managed to get in first and was screaming for me to let go of her arm!! The pushing was intense!! Once inside the doors there were turnstyles to go through, girls were jumping and flying over them. Once we got in the arena things settled down.
The show was amazing. My mom and my aunt weren't to thrilled, they didn't like the waiting in line or the pushing and screaming girls!! My aunt had sandals on and stepped in some KFC gravy that was left on the ground from fans who had waited there all day in line!! Gravy between her toes was not what she bargained for!!
A year later we got to do it again, only minus the parents!! They weren't going through that again!! I kept thinking how much I would love to meet these lads, and how much they meant to me!!
Then the internet happened, the fan parties, the meeting of the fans and some members of the bands. What a blast!! Atlanta, 2002, I was finally after 25 or so years I was going to finally met Les Mckeown!! I wanted to pinch myself. Could this be real? Was it actually going to happen?
Then, Friday morning, the day before the Rave was to happen, Trisha and I were just getting out of the elevator in the lobby to go have breakfast. There was a guy who had just gotten out only seconds before us. I said, "Trisha is that HIM?". She said, "Yes", he turned around and I waved and Trisha said, "Hi". He proceeded into the lobby where about eight girls were standing. I walked up and stood beside him. He looked at me, I said, "Hi, we haven't met yet, online you know me as Ginger". He went to shake my hand, but I thought I had waited most of my life for this I wasn't going for just a hand shake!! I put my arms around him and gave him a hug!!
It was wonderful!! I always wondered how I would react to finally meeting him. Would I faint, be tongue tied? I was surprised that I had a few pitter patters the moment he looked at me, and then I was fine. A few min. later he left and I was smiling!! What a way to start the day!! I joined my fellow Ravers and knew that the long wait was worth it and that I hoped I would have more meetings with him in the future!! I can't wait for New Orleans!!
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