July 9,1974

The Year of the Diamond Dogs

The T.Rex ticket that became the David Bowie ticket

 It was Valentine's Day.

I was home 

from school

sick

Lunch time

knock on the door.

It was my friend,Gia.

"You weren't in school so I wanted to make sure you were ok", she said.

Any excuse to

 cut class.

She handed me

an envelope

a Valentine's Day card

a T.Rex ticket.

$6.50

Marc Bolan

 got sick

The show

was cancelled.

WMMR announced

"If you 

bring 

your T.Rex ticket 

to 

The Tower Theater,

for 

an additional dollar,

you can 

exchange it

for 

a DAVID BOWIE ticket." 

Thank you,Gia

Family portrait 

with 

Bowie Kid

(Polaroid)

1974

A good year

For mums

to recreate 

Bowie couture

For

their 

unearthly daughters

(Though 

I think

I made 

this one)

 

 

HAPPY 69TH. BIRTHDAY,MR. BOWIE

with love,Karen aka Colleen

 

 
You may wonder
why I possess
an autograph
“To Colleen”
from “Bowie”

In 1974,
in my high school
of 4,000
someone
in the lunchroom
had a cousin
who was a roadie
for David Bowie.

Out of the blue,
she gave this to me
It seemed
somewhere
along the line
My name
had become
“Colleen”

I thought perhaps:
1- it was stolen
2- it was forged

It seemed
to be
a lot of trouble
either way.

But mostly
it seemed
to be
 a lovely thought.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 

MR.BOWIE

from "The Year of the Diamond Dogs"

1974

 

In 1974 I bought these ruby slippers special for my first David Bowie concert.

A dream come true.
It seemed forever until the July concert arrived.

My friend, Gia and I arrived at the show and were told our assigned seats were already occupied.

By the sound equipment.

Our tickets were upgraded:

fourth row orchestra seats.
With squeals of delight, we bounced to our seats.

The show defied definition.

Halfway through a rare encore- Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around” - Gia grabbed my arm and pulled me up the aisle.
“Hey.What are you doing?Where are we going?” , I asked.
“To the stage door.Follow me”, she said.

We raced out of the theater and around the corner.The small alley was blocked with yellow police barricades.
“Now what?” I said.
“Let’s go.” Gia gave me a push  and we jumped over the barricades.

Perfect timing.
Bowie’s black limo was slowly sliding down the alley.
Much to my surprise- and everyone else’s- Gia jumped and landed splat on the front of the  limo.
A grinning,waving teenage hood ornament.

Ava Cherry was in the backseat looking somewhat startled and amused.
I was frantically waving from the sidelines.
Bowie gave a grimace and royal wave as he slowly sank into the backseat.
The driver kept going.
Picking up a little speed.

Gia rolled off the hood.
“You think he coulda stopped”,she said.

No matter to me.

It was a dream come true.

RETURN OF "THE THIN WHITE DUKE"-

a snow story

David Bowie photograph by Metra 1976 AMI Productions

Phila.PA

It was an unusually warm February night.

Everyone had shed their woolen winter skins .
Yes,it was that warm.

My teenage friends and I were delighted. We had plans to drive into the city at 3am and line up to buy David Bowie tickets.
An urban teenage form of “camping out”.

In the middle of the night,the weather abruptly changed.
And it started to snow.And snow.And snow.
A white out blizzard.

To this day,I’m not quite sure how we convinced my mother to let us go through with our plan.Especially as my friend’s car had a rear door that was tied shut.

We were determined.
Off we went at 3 am.
A gaggle of giggling teenage girls.

I remember the silence of the road.
Cushioned with snow.
I remember the cold of the car.
Heated only by our chatter.

The ticket office’s street was littered with empty frozen sleeping bags. The former occupants now snuggled inside their cars.

The grey of the early sky cracked.
The pink of the morning sun slowly crept through.
Bundled bodies gathered to reclaim their sleeping bags.
Markers of their place in line.

A restaurant’s early morning bread delivery was “borrowed”.
Distributed.
Up and down the ticket line.
Like the loaves and fishes.
Feeding everyone.

Squeals of delight echoed when the ticket office opened.
Elation replaced exhaustion.

(Though one of our friends suffered frostbite,we did not take her for treatment until after we got our tickets.By chance there was a hospital across the street from the ticket office.

The ER staff kindly treated “one of those crazy kids from that ticket line.”)

“The Return of The Thin White Duke.”
How those hot tickets warmed our hands.
And our souls.