True Story Tuesday - 01/19/10 Part II

Remember when I said that my going back the next day and taking a picture of the Big Bopper's headstone was going to be very important? Well, here's the rest of the story...

We had seen Bowling for Soup in June for part of the Texas leg of their "Get Happy Tour" and in November,  Katiebug found out they were going to be Shreveport, LA...a mere 4 hours from Beaumont.  The concert was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and we decided to head East to see Soup once again.

The night before I printed out the picture I had taken at the cemetery and put it in a frame I had bought.  I made sure the frame was matted and wrote "Get Happy Tour 2006"  June (whatever day it was), 2006 Beaumont TX and told Katiebug to bring it with her. Maybe we'd get lucky and be able to see them again and she could give it to them.

Now, before former boss turned into a complete jerk wad, on occasion he would do really nice things like leave his car with me for the weekend. We affectionately referred to his oil slick black, 2007 Infiniti M35 as "The Batmobile" with it's heated and chilled leather seats, everything power imaginable within fingertip reach, the GPS system known as Debbie the Dashboard lady and all the other accoutrement. It really was a nice car...much nicer than my 2003 Saturn with power nothing. This was one of those weekends. I got off work around 3, headed home to pick up Katiebug and we were on the road to see our new favorite band. We took our time getting there, checked into our hotel room and then headed out to the club where the band was playing. Remember:  it was a four hour drive.

We drove to the club and after what seemed like forever, finally found a parking space, parked the car and went to get in line to get in.  Katiebug was in front of me and was again so excited she could barely contain herself.  We get to the guy taking tickets and he asked to see her ID.  She gives it to him and he says (get ready....

"Sorry.  It's a 21 and up show.  Can't let you in."

Uh...what was that? Oh no you de int ~ I'm telling you right now that if I drive for four hours and then you tell me we can't see the concert, someone's getting something for free. My poor little baby (ok, yeah she was 18 but she's still my baby) was in tears.  She said, "Mama!  They're not going to let me in!"  I told the guy she was with me, I was her mom, yadda yadda.  He said yes, in most places you could get in underage if you were with your parents but Shreveport had a city ordinance that said NO ONE under 21 was allowed in a club or bar.  So we left the door area with poor little Katiebug in tears.  We walked to the back of the club towards the bus.  I told her that even though we might not be able to see them in concert maybe we could at least see them at the bus, give them the picture and we would find something to do so the trip and evening wouldn't be a complete bust.

As chance would have it, Erik the bass player was standing outside talking on his cell.  We walked up to him and waited patiently for him to finish.  He acknowledged us standing there and said something along the line of "Hey. How are y'all?"  I was so proud of Katiebug.  She said she had something for them and handed him the picture.  He looked at it and said (to his wife we now knew), "Babe, I'm going to have to let you go.  I just got handed a picture of the Big Bopper's grave from when we were there.  Remember I told you about that and how those people took us there?"  He asked how we were, how long of a drive did we have to make to get here, etc.  We explained to him that they were not going to let us in because of the whole 21 and up thing. He apologized because they had no idea the club was doing that because it was never advertised as a 21 and up show.  Katiebug asked if the other guys were around and if they were could she maybe see them since she wasn't going to be able to see the show.  He said sure and went to get them.  Jaret came out of the bus and Erik showed them the picture.  He thought it was the coolest thing ever and said they were going to put it in their practice studio.  Erik explained to them that we had driven 4 hours to see them but weren't going to be able to because she wasn't 21.  Jaret said that sucked and said to hang on.  He went and got the owner of the club and told him our story.  He said as long as she stayed right by my side and didn't go anywhere else in the club, he would make her a 'merchandise girl' and she would have to stay right by the merchandise table but she could see the show.  Thank goodness that I had the forethought to make that picture, right?

After my earlier post today, Katiebug told me she had pictures of that night so that I could prove she had hung out with Bowling for Soup not once, but TWICE!

Here's B-Diddy the merch girl (who's so not gangster but thought it would make a better picture)

Look how excited she is...

One of the best times we've ever had and thankfully someone helped us to remember it

Want to hear something even cooler?  Katiebug saw them again this past summer and she told the guy she went with that she knew them and had hung out with them twice before and was looking forward to meeting them again.  Poor boy didn't believe her. Wonder what he thought when they not only recognized her but told her that picture, the one Mama thought would be a good idea to bring, is still hanging in their practice studio?