My First Rock Concert - July 4, 1980

I couldn't hear anything for three days!

My older cousin Jimmy got two tickets for a concert, and he asked me if I wanted to go with him. I mean, this is my big cousin, Jimmy, and he's asking me to go with him to a concert? Wow! How cool is that? This was going to be me hanging out with my cool, older cousin at a rock concert! I was 17 years old, and I think Jimmy was going to be 20 years old in 1980. I asked him who it was we were going to go see. He answered, "We're gonna go see Foghat at Alpine Valley!" I remember being awe-struck. This was huge! I had never been to Alpine Valley. I had only ever heard stories about how big the place was and how so many rock bands had played there.

Every summer, our entire extended family had a birthday party for my Grandmother. She was born on the 4th of July. The parade, the party and then the fireworks down by the lake. These were a family tradition that went back as far as I could remember. The only thing was, this time, Jimmy and I were going to head out west of Racine and drive to Ea…