Wednesday, February 1, 2023 Entry #9
Though I planned and anticipated this journey and these concerts for a long time, one aspect I didn’t really foresee was all the fascinating people, fellow Bruce Springsteen fans I would meet . It makes sense in retrospect, but I kind of had this notion that I was on a solo quest of sorts and that maybe (against my nature) I would be keeping mostly to myself. Within moments in the the GA line, all of that fell apart. I met a ton of folks from all over the country and the world, many of whom I’d see again at the concerts that followed, some of whom were “touring” much more extensively than my plans called for. we had plenty of time to tell our stories, and our Springsteen connections of course. I shared the Jewish Light story about the “Rock & Roll Rabbi” with a few of my new friends and they got a kick out of it, especially the Jewish identifying fans in line.
Many of the GA ticket-holders were around my age, but there were some young people (besides the kids who were there with their parents). One of those was Cassie, a young woman in her 20’s who came to Tampa from San Francisco. Cassie was turned on to Springsteen by her dad and had been to many Springsteen concerts with her family, friends and solo. I’ll let my Facebook post tell the story of when (in 2016, not 2017 as I incorrectly recounted) she got to play guitar with The Boss onstage. The YouTube video at the top of this post is a joyful capture of the awesome moment Cassie experienced that I have since edited to only show the relevant action. It’s pretty cool:
Here’s a photo of Cassie, Thomas (from Rhode Island who figures in another story I’ll tell in the Hollywood, FL section) and me after waiting in line and getting into the arena.
Day 4
Fellow Travelers