Minutes to Memories

In a couple of hours I will be leaving the office to head towards Simpsonville to see John Mellencamp in concert. I am excited because it will be the first show I've gone to at the relatively new Heritage Park. I am excited because I will also get to see Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan. I'm excited because I'll get to hang out with my brother from another mother Mark Johnson and his son Miles. The main reason I am excited though is that I will finally see John Mellencamp (the artist formerly known as John Cougar) in concert.

Several years ago I made a list of artists I wanted to see perform before I die, or they die (the latter of which I hope happens first). Some friends of mine have called it my bucket list. Of course at the time I made the list that movie had not come out yet. When I first made the list it included four acts: John Cougar Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, The Eagles, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. When I first came up with the list I really thought it was a lost cause. The reason why is that at the time the Eagles weren't even speaking to one another, and Bruce and the band had not performed together in some time. Well if all goes as planned this evening, when I wake up in the morning I will only need to see Tom Petty to finish the list.

Throughout my high school years and during my freshmen year of college three Mellencamp albums got tons of play on the Clarion cassette deck in my Datsun 210. The songs on "Uh-huh", "Scarecrow", and "The Lonesome Jubilee" hold a ton of great memories for me. So tonight if he plays "Crumblin'Down", "Small Town", or "Paper in Fire" I won't just be in Simpsonville. In my mind I'll be cruising down Hwy.378 in West Columbia, with a bag full of Rush's cheeseburgers, to meet Pauley when he gets off work at Little Caesar's. It seems like I was just there yesterday. As Mellencamp sings, "days turn to minutes and minutes to memories".