by Tim Davis, North East, MD

July 25, 1973, I met this amazing girl on the night of her 20th birthday at the Deer Park in Newark, DE. Fell in love with her straight away. I didn’t see her again for about a week though, because the very next day, Thursday, I drove four of us up to Watkin’s Glen for the express purpose of crashing a major concert. None of us in the car had tickets, and the only reason that I was able to use a car reliable enough for the trip was that I promised a woman that I knew that her 17-year-old daughter would be safe and sound if I could use her Volkswagon Fastback.

My parents called me and told me that the cops were turning un-ticketed would-be attendees away miles from the gates, but we drove on anyway. Reaching the outer gateposts of the venue, we were crawling along in an unending traffic jam with three kids on top of the car and five inside. The ticket takers asked the kids on top for their tickets and they said that we had them inside. Same question to us inside and we said that the kids on the roof hads them. They told us to enjoy the concert and we made camp late Thursday night.

The Friday night impromptu sound checks evolved into about five hours’ incredible music from The Band, the Allmans and the Dead, separately and ultimately together. Precise details are somewhat hazy due to certain chemical imbalances I was subject to…

Saturday, the official day of the concert there were estimated to be more than 600,000 people in unofficial attendance. Set some records, I believe. More incredible music, heavy rain and a tragic accidental death of a sky-diver… We were all too buzzed to notice the fine details.

Anyway… when I made it back to Newark, I looked up that girl. We’ve been married 31 years now. I’ve never had any trouble remembering the circumstances of our meeting.