Project Ticket Stub - 1983

1983. Apple Lisa is born. Bjorn Borg retires. Reagan calls the Soviet Union the "evil empire" and launches the Strategic Defense Initiative proposal (aka Star Wars). U.S. embassy in Beirut is destroyed by a suicide bomber. Lech Walesa wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

And I had my head down in graduate school. I moved from Blacksburg, VA to Nashua, NH in late May or early June to begin a research internship with Digital, and I wouldn't return to Tech for classes again until the following January. I was consumed by graduate school and the internship, and had little time for anything else.

Grover Washington, Jr. Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA Unknown date in 1983 I don't know the date for this show, but it had to be early in the year, before I moved to New Hampshire. I vaguely remember it being winter, so maybe it was in February? Grover Washington, Jr.'s smooth jazz certainly wasn't the sort of music I was listening to, as you might guess by previously posted ticket stubs. I went to this concert because my next door neighbor, Terri, wanted to go and I'm guessing that nobody else in our little circle of graduate school friends was willing. But hey, I'm game for any kind of music.

Neil Young Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), Saratoga Springs, NY September 4, 1983 Neil was touring behind his Everybody's Rocking rockabilly-inspired album. I recall that the first set was straight-forward Neil, and the second set was Neil and the Shocking Pinks doing the more rockabilly sort of tunes. I'll take straight-forward Neil, please, thank you.

SPAC, by the way, is a wonderful place for a summer concert. Scott must have been living in Albany around this time, and I suspect Mark came up from NJ to NH and from there we met up with Scott and others in Albany. This show had a great parking lot scene, and I remember learning that, yes, you can grill hot dogs and hamburgers in the hub cap of a 1970 Chevy Impala if you have somehow forgotten to bring the hibachi grill.