The Group at the Civic Arena: I Remember, I Was There............. by Al Breaw

Greetings,

I must say that when The Three Amigos suggested that I should start reading these blogs that contain bits and pieces of our history, I initially felt that I probably won’t remember much. That changed quickly, especially when I saw the blog about the Civic Arena. I remember WILLARD told me many years ago that paying attention can be important. I guess he was right.



When I read the article about the different people and groups that had played in the Aberdeen Civic Arena, I saw where “The Group” had played there. At first I didn’t remember the event, and so I thought maybe it was “AM” (after me) or possibly PM (pryor-pryer-prier-prior to me). Because I’ve always had trouble spelling the “P” word (as you can see), we’ll just go with “BM” (before me).

FINALLY, I REMEMBERED!
 

Rented The Civic Arena

Purchased Dance Insurance

Testing Equipment & Practice Sessions

Vendors: Donald & Hillary

Loot Everywhere!

We rented the arena for (I’m pretty sure) the 4th of July 1965. We had to pay rent on the building, get a dance license, hire police for security, and I'm sure there were other costs that I can’t remember. We also had to practice and test the equipment for long hours. 


We had parents, girlfriends, and siblings (and possibly a political candidate or two) take care of ticketing and running the snack bar. I don’t remember how much money we actually made, but it was quite good considering all the expenses we had. It was also, probably, the largest crowd any of us had played to at that point.













I’ll never forget the next day when we met at John Stablein’s house at Mina Lake to divide the loot. There was money laying everywhere. I was a bit surprised because it didn’t seem like there was that big of a crowd, however, the arena holds a lot of people and you can have a very good turnout without it being totally packed.

Dividing The Loot!  Al, Jose, Chuck, Jerry, John

We were young, happy and felt RICH!










Hey Tres Amigos, gracias por el viaje de recuerdos!