The school season of 1991 finally came to a close. I had finished my seemingly excruciatingly long first year of college and Christi had finally graduated from high school. Her commencement cermony was held at the Nutter Center on Friday, May 31, 1991. I don’t currently have any really good photos of Christi actually graduating (although she sort-of appears in the one below), but as I recall she and her Mom got into a fight because anxious to get away to the graduation parties, she turned in her cap and gown before anyone could get any pictures of her. But the pictures at right and below are at least of me and my family attending the ceremony!
Christi, Kim Cummings, and Jackie Moore in their graduation gear
Christi’s Grandma, Denise, Mom, and a crying Ashleigh at her Mom’s graduation ceremony. Coincindentally, that’s our old friend John Leslie sitting in front of us.
The Summer got off to a pathetically disturbing start when Christi and I attended one of those graduation parties and she snuck off and fell asleep in a ditch or something. I spent the rest of the night hanging out with my work friend Larry Abbott and his girlfriend Denise Coppock. Eventually I had to leave the party alone. Christi’s Mom wasn’t very happy with me for that, but what else could I do?
Things recovered for a bit after that and I was able to share two first-time experiences with Christi early in the Summer - exciting concerts of two of my Big Seven bands. The first show was Styx on June 13. Although, I had never seen the original popular line-up, I was still ecstatic about my chance to see them in their latest incarnation. Their Edge of the Century album had come out in October of 1990 and instantly became a favorite for Christi and me to listen to. Her favorite song was All in a Day’s Work, written by new member Glen Burtnik who was now touring with the band in place of Tommy Shaw.
We attended the concert at Riverbend with a friend from work, Tom Low, and his wife. The wife was less than enthusiastic about the show, barely bobbing her head to the music. Tom, on the other hand, went nuts from the second that Styx took the stage to their final encore - screaming “They’re back buddy and they’re bad!” I fell somewhere in the middle, and Christi spend most of her time laughing at the Lows. Overall, it was a great show and I was thrilled to have finally seen this band from my Big Seven. I wrote down the entire tour set for future occasions such as this website. I also bought a black tour shirt, which I still wear occasionally today.
This was written by me during the show and can be translated as Edge of the Century, Rockin’ the Paradise, Little Fugue in G, Love is the Ritual, The Best of Times, Snowblind, Suite Madame Blue, All in a Day’s Work, Blue Collar Man (Long Nights), Homewrecker, Show Me the Way, Too Much Time on My Hands, The World Tonight, Babe, Lady, Miss America, Come Sail Away…and for the encore Renegade and Not Dead Yet
Exactly two weeks later, Christi and I were back at Riverbend on Thursday, June 27, this time with my sister Denise and my friend Matt Bohlander. Now we were seeing Morrissey, former lead singer of Big Seven band The Smiths. This concert was incredible as well and we were much closer to the stage. In fact, we were seventh row from the front situated on the right center section. We were close to Morrissey, but not quite close enough to touch him. A guy I met in my Freshman Composition (who was also a Depeche Mode fan and hooked me up with getting Martin Gore’s solo CD), worked at Blockbuster or some such Ticketmaster agent and was able to pull up these awesome seats for us, add a few bucks per ticket, and send us on our way. I remember that for some reason I had skipped this class and my Dad drove me up to WSU to meet him and get the tickets.
I was in awe to see Morrissey, who is to me what James Dean is to him. I remember my heart racing as he took the stage and everyone began gyrating to the tune of Interesting Drug. I remember someone throwing a cigarette onstage when he sang the lines “give me a cigarette…” in Our Frank. But mostly I remember that Morrissey wasn’t happy when some of the security in the front got too rough with the guys jumping onto the stage near the end of the show. No one was very happy when Morrissey came out and announced that they would not be doing an encore because “the security in this venue is so strict that we’re going to go.” Exact words - verbatim.
Morrisey’s set list was as follows: Interesting Drug, The Last of the Famous International Playboys, Piccadilly Palare, Trash, Sing Your Life, King Leer, Asian Rut, Mute Witness, November Spawned a Monster, Will Never Marry, Angel Angel Down We Go Together, There is a Place in Hell For Me and My Friends, That’s Entertainment, Our Frank, and Suedehead. This list was obviously heavily concentrated with songs from his latest album Kill Uncle - and included not a single song from The Smiths. Had he perfromed the encore, the songs would have been Everyday Is Like Sunday and Disappointed.
Denise and I each bought a t-shirt (you can see mine here and hers here if you are desperately bored). I actually wore my Johnny Marr shirt, the one that I had bought from Mark Harris for $5.00, thinking that there would be some Smiths fans commenting on it. However no one really seemed to care. I also bought a copy of the tour program with the horrendous-looking woman on the cover as seen at left, which has since been lost.
And so the Summer continued…Things were getting ugly in the land of Christiville, with her new batch of suitors and wastes of human skin hanging around. I made no secret about my disdain for them and they responded by toilet papering my house. Unfortunately for them, the lady delivering the mail that morning saw them in the act, got their license plate number, and reported them to the police. For some reason, my Mom wasn’t home that night so I was awakened bright and early (like 5am) by the police asking me what I wanted them to do. I had them brought back and clean up the mess. Later I decided that the job wasn’t good enough, so we threatened to press charges if they didn’t come back and do a better job. Seakay ended up losing his keys in our yard while cleaning, while Jeff the walking advertisement for birth control begged me not to press charges.
As bad as things got, it only got worse when Christi actually moved into our house. She had a fight with her Mom - probably about staying out too late or something - and got kicked out of her place on Edith Marie. Even though we weren’t getting along, she had no place else to go - and I didn’t want her taking Ashleigh anywhere else - so she ended up staying with me. Ashleigh already had a crib in my room and Christi slept in Denise’s double bed.
I remember one horrendous night when Christi had Jennifer Crum over and they were all packed into Denise’s bed - Ashleigh included. I had to get up very early for work and they were all giggling all night, Jennifer had a hacking cough that sounded like she was trying to vomit a live chicken, and Ashleigh using her newfound ability to talk was crying for “nuncy milk” until the wee hours of the morning.
I was glad that I would be embarking on a vacation soon…
which will be coming up next…
Ahh yes…the dreaded nuncy milk, giggling and coughing fit night; I remember it well. Christi and Jennifer had both been out that evening imbibing. They came home, after I was already asleep, and continued their revelry in my bed! The only thing Brad failed to mention was my screaming at them to “Shut Up!”
I’m not sure if Christi was in laughing hysterics over Jennifer’s coughing fit or if it was Ashleigh’s constant cry of “nuncy meeilk.” Or perhaps she was laughing over my frustration regarding the whole thing…
Those were crazy times.
Denise
February 9th, 2008