Teen Idols Concert July 29th, 2000 Mount Pocono, PA

OK, what happened to Erica!! and me will never happen this greatly ever ever again. It was almost surreal and it was all full of twists, turns, and otherwise. Well, here I go.

First off, as Erica!!'s mother is taking me to their house Friday night that is a good hour away from my house without traffic, about 40 minutes into the drive, I realize I left my purse at home and the $120 I had pulled out just for this! OK, now my mind set was it's all going downhill from here. But Erica!! and her mother assured me that it'd be OK and that I could borrow money and pay it back when they took me home and for a person who cannot stand to ask people for money, not even her own parents, the wasn't very reassuring. But I lived…somehow.

After a wonderful 4 hour sleep the night before at Erica!!'s house-and yet another viewing of the VH1 movie on my part and a few popcorn-throwing lessons with a bonus viewing of "Newsies"-we all got up, Erica!!'s mother included and slowly made our way to Mount Pocono via car. The car trip was rather uneventful so I'll save you all the details. In Erica!!'s possession was her copy of Hey Hey, We're The Monkees that she had already gotten signed my Peter Tork. In my possession, an order form for Micky Merchandise I got in the mail in April of '99 according to the postmark. Why? I wanted it autographed. Why? Well, let's put it this way, I wasn't gonna spend $25.00 I don't have on a CD complete with autograph when I could just as well go to a concert and have him autograph the order form itself. Plus, I'm in the habit of getting the most useless things autographed-remember my report card signed by Peter Tork and James Lee Stanley? Oh, and a round robin story Erica!!, Heather!!, and I wrote at my birthday entitled The March 8th Bash. It was a wacked-out party with just the three of us. With the story was a poem and letter from Heather!! (who could not join us unfortunately and will forever hate it I assure you), a letter from Erica!! and a printed-out copy of my "masterpiece" TABLECLOTH (the original is hanging on the wall in my room; I'm sorry but I couldn't part with the original) with a little note along the lines of "Wear a tablecloth, Micky. Good luck with your concerts. Your Friend, Rebecca!!" (Don't' worry, I sign EVERYTHING, "Your Friend".) We were going to give it to him somehow. He didn't get it in his e-mail for his birthday like we had originally planned so we had to hand it to him on paper.

We arrived at the Mount Pocono Hotel or Resort of something that was the place where the Teen Idols would be performing. We arrived about 6 hours early as well. Erica!!'s mother finally convinced me that she would lend me money no matter what amount and it was totally alright with her. So hesitantly I asked for $90 (the amount I was going to bring minus the cost of the ticket) and she left with the stipulation that we eat something before the concert. We promised we would but we were secretly crossing our fingers behind our backs. I kinda wished later we weren't though but that's not important. Equipped with my book bag, Erica!!'s bag, and money, we set forth to find something to do in a hotel we weren't staying at and that had crappy facilities. We found where the line would be forming and walked passed it about three times before trying to sit in the line. We got these real evil looks from these girls too and if you're reading, I'm sorry J. Well, we were bored and silent so we left again. We walked to the little off to the side of the lobby area between the café and gift shop and sat on the couches. We were bored out of our minds. I then wanted to go look around the gift shop a little for anything. Erica!! wanted to put a flower with the envelope but couldn't find any that she liked or wanted to buy. Then it was either Erica!! or I-it was probably Erica!!-that brought up the idea to buy a large lollypop instead and so we did. Then, we sat again. What were we to do, wonder the halls? I have this phobia with hotels I'm not staying at that I'd get caught somewhere I wasn't supposed to be and get thrown out. So it was either sit on the couch or wait in line. Or we could try and join the Bobby Sherman Fan Club that was at the Hotel and getting all the front seats to the concert. As we pondered, we met this girl named Tracy who was talking about the Bobby Sherman Fan Club (and I'm putting that very gently) and who included us in the conversation as well. So Erica!! asked if we could "hang" with them just so we had someone to talk to, NOT to mooch off of or anything like that. Oh, did I mention she was in the group in the front of the line and was there since 8:00 in the morning? Tracy then introduced us to her friends Jamie and Sarah and we started talking with them a little.

OK, time for some setting description. The hallway to the room where the performance was, a room called "Crystal Room" was glass. It was in an L shape and there were three or four long steps to the doors to the Crystal Room. There was an open door outside right straight ahead of the doors to the Crystal Room where there sat a few rocks and, grass, and a lake about 30 feet away. Tracy and Jamie needed to smoke and offered to let us sit with them though neither Erica!! and I smoke. So we sat on the rocks talking a little about the Monkees and others and I'm looking through the windows to the hall and there I see Micky carrying a guitar walking to the door of the Crystal Room! If I were any other person, I'da jumped up and cryied "Can I get your autograph." IF I were any other person…

This is everything I said when I saw him and make note I was completely monotone:

"There he is. There's Micky. He's trying to get into the room. But he can't. Now he's coming out here. Hi Micky. [vacant/scared smile on Micky's face as he looks at me and then looks away] And there he goes in the back way."

I have now officially scared Micky Dolenz. Aren't I on a roll? No money, bored, and I've scared Micky.

After our chat with Tracy, Jamie, and Sarah; we went back inside and we sat with them having NO intension of butting in line but rather to talk. In fact, Erica!! took my book bag and placed it at the end of the line where ever it was at the time so to save a spot when the time came when we'd have to move. Well, the three of them more or less left yet their spots in line were saved at all times. So now Erica!! and I are once again without anyone to talk to but each other and we said everything we needed to in the car ride. Then this girl named Christine comes to the front to peak through the doors to look through this opening in the curtains as we listened to Micky's sound check and the bass player's wonderful rendision of "Another On Bites The Dust" (note ther is NO sarcasm). The security guards soon closed the curtains. She had another place in line as well but decided to sit up front to be there. We were talking to her as well and she had brought her copy of Micky's Bio that she graciously allowed me to flip through. She was very nice but a little shy and we kept offering her to come closer and talk to us but she was fine. Don't worry, I know how that is :)

So now we were sitting there alone and these other two girls in their twenties come over to the front and now that I think back I wasn't exactly sure why. Well, Erica!! looked over and commented on one of the girl's footwear. I then proceeded to ask if they were comfortable because there are no shoes in the world that are comfortable on my small feet so it's a habit to ask if shoes are comfortable. Well, this broke some sort of ice and she showed us this 30-year-old magazine from Canada she had with Micky, Samantha, and Ami on the cover and inside. This was awesome. Her friend soon joined to show us what she had-and I held the original script to Mijacogeo and Art For Monkees Sake in my hands! Well, it was a little before or after this I finally said, "By the way, My name's Rebecca. And this is Erica."
The first girl replies, "Rebecca exclamation point exclamation point?" (Meaning Rebecca!!)
I blink and sat up more. "Yes!" I answer. I turn to Erica!! and say, "Hey, she knows us!"
She looks down a little and says rather quietly, "I'm Fuzzy Duc." And if you don't know who Fuzzy Duc is, you haven't been to one of the coolest Monkee sites out there.
I blink again. "You're Fuzzy Duc?" This was great. She then introduced her friend…Miki. This was almost too good! How did we fall into this I wondered! Everything all of a sudden took this 180-degree turn on us! Miki and a friend of hers and some others all gathered and basically it was the five or so of us chatting and talking and they were showing people their things they had with them. I ask you this, how many people would carry their "Night of the Strangler" movie poster with them? Answer me that! Or "Linda Lovelace for President"? And they were so nice and out going and Miki is a great storyteller. We were chatting about everything to the Monkees to the Teen Idols to my violin! It was great! We lost track of time and the wait wasn't so bad after that J because I was beginning to wonder.

The Crystal Room's doors wouldn't open until 8:30pm and then we'd be seated at the tables inside. Well, for whatever strange reason, everyone decided to stand up at 7:40pm. Oh, and just so you know, the girls who were in front and let us chat with them before they left did get to the front of the line and were there pressed up against the doors so they were still in front. Well, now that everyone had stood up, Erica!! and I were pretty much trapped where we were and my bag was back where we were supposed to be! Erica!!'s mother then managed come over and hand me my bag so the bag was safe after all. Then Fuzzy Duc and Miki, who were there to take pictures for Micky, managed to get into the room a good 15 minutes before everyone and there was this good sized gap in the line. The girls who were earlier giving us an evil eye were standing off to the side-this was a wide hall and only half crowded divided by the banister in the middle of the small stairway by the door-saying to whomever they were with that they were gonna cut in line since people had cut in front of them (almost like us but we REALLY didn't mean to). So I nudged Erica!! and told her to ask them if they wanted this space in front of us that had cleared when Fuzzy Duc and Miki went in. She did and they filed in, all 5 or 6 of them. We explained how we really truly didn't mean to cut in front of them because my bag was back there but we got stuck when the line decided to stand up. I hope they understood.

Well, skipping the 15/20 minute wait in the boiling sea of humanity, we finally were lead in and ready to be seated. Erica!! and I were ahead of her mother and we had to explain to the people that we had a third person. The guy sent us to table 109, which, if you had to pick a term to fit this table's location, was in the nose bleed section. It was in the very back; you really couldn't get any further. We asked the woman who was seating us if it was really in the back as she was walking us to the table and she replied, "Well, yeah but it's got a view." View my backside; my camara's crappy at 5 feet! Erica!! was about to cry and I was thinking, "there goes the evening". Not 5 seconds after the waitress left, here comes Miki walking back. She says, "Follow me" and we immediately pick up our stuff and follow her. She brought us to her and Fuzzy Duc's table off to the side of the stage. You couldn't get any closer to the stage unless you were a Bobby Sherman Fan Club Member and paid the extra $25 plus room! We gave them the biggest hugs and said over and over, "You really don't have to do this for us." Miki explained that they were given a table for six and there was only three people going to be sitting there and she was going to see where we were going to be seated first. I'm telling you, Erica!! and I are sending them fruit baskets or flowers or something. This was way too much and I hope they understand how much we really truly appreciated that.

Erica!!'s mom and Miki's other friend, whom we shall call Scorp, came to join us. When we were officially introduced to Scorp, she told us her real name. We then asked if she had an on-line name and it was Scorp and a couple numbers that escape me. I replied, "Oh, you're Scorp. I'm DesyHand." We are both on AMM as is Fuzzy Duc where she knew me from. This was getting so unreal it almost couldn't get better at least for me. Scorp was yet another of the coolest people we'll ever meet. We were talking about school and peer pressure and we now know a great new payback that involves banana [enter evil laughter here].

Before the concert, there was a pre-show with the stand-up comedian named John Carfi. If you ever catch him on Comedy Central doing stand-up on anything, watch him. The man is hilarious. I don't want to quote any of his material but he is very funny and you will love him.

OK, the concert commences. Bobby Sherman took 10 minutes to get to the stage. He's signing autographs and collecting flowers and I'm just sitting there waiting to even see the man! Blue sequins are a nice touch, Bobby. And everyone flocked to the side of the stage without the Bobby Sherman fans sitting around to give their stuff to Bobby. Unfortunately, it was blocking the view to half the audience us included. We got them to sit on the floor but a piece of advise, if you want to flock to a clear side of a stage with people sitting behind you, go straight to your knees. People heckle and people hate it. Well, I'll just skip the Bobby Sherman part since it involved his fan club mostly and it was just a little long for someone for whom this concert would be her first Micky Dolenz experience. So we'll bypass Bobby and go to Micky. It took me about 30 second but out came my tape-recorder and camera. Micky's performance was all music and little to no small talk with the audience, which was very refreshing after Bobby's performance. And don't' get me wrong, I like Bobby Sherman but I don't' want to hear the first two bars of "Easy Come, Easy Go" played about 50 times thank you. Micky had his guitar in hand and he went from Last Train to Steppin' Stone to That was Then to Too Much Monkey Business to Purple Haze to some blues song that I don't know the title to Daydream Believer to Pleasant Valley Sunday and then finally I'm a Believer. It was an awesome set and mostly music. But, unfortunately I do have to admit it was beat by Peter Noone. Peter danced and sang and was very polite to the fans that wanted to get autographs telling them very politely he'd autograph it afterwards because is was boring to the audience. I'm still kicking myself for turning off my tape recorder during his performance though.

After the performances and the lights came on, Peter Noone came out for his autograph session in the room and we were still at the table. I did leave to buy a t-shirt but came back. We didn't know where to go and we weren't in line for Peter Noone; in fact, we were waiting for the line to end before we'd do anything. Well, Fuzzy Duc left to find where Micky was exactly, since, thanks to Mr. Noone for making us aware of this several times, Micky was in the bar. He said at least three times "Micky's in the bar!" I was so tempted to just break the silence in the room and say "Hey Peter, is Micky in the bar?" but I didn't. We saw Fuzzy Duc come back and wave us over so we left the Crystal Room to find Micky in the bar.

Being after 10:00pm we knew more or less that Erica!! and I would not be able to get into the bar because we were under-aged-she's 16 and I'm 17. There were two ways into the bar: through the back way and through the front. Scorp and Fuzzy Duc walked in through the back way and we said we meet with them on the other side because we couldn't go in anyway. Miki was kind enough to walk with us down the hall to get to the front. This hall had the bathrooms and hotel offices. Well, we're walking down the hall and who should start walking up? Micky and his drink! Well, he was holding his drink but you get the point. Erica!! and I are standing to either side of this hall and Miki and Erica!!'s mother are slightly behind us and he walks between us and give Miki a hug. I'm watching this thinking, "Why aren't my legs shaking or anything?" Miki says to him something along the lines of "could you give these girls your autograph." Well, Micky replies, "I'll be coming back. I have to go pee," and he walked into the Men's room. So now I can officially say I saw Micky go to the bathroom :)

We waited with Miki by the couch we were at twice before and I told Miki, "You really don't have to do this for us. You don't have to do anything you don't want to." But she was perfectly alright with us or she was putting us on very well.

And here, Erica!!'ll Take On the Converstion with Micky since she can remember almost every word.

Miki: Could you sign these girls things?
Micky: Can they come in the bar? I got a line of people waiting.
MIki: They can't
Micky: Why?
Miki: They're under-aged. 17. 16
Micky: Well they arent checking
But Micky does come back (aww what a sweet heart. See this is where I get a new repest for the man. Thank you Micky).
Erica!!: Well last time I was here a couple years ago I got in some trouble and got kicked out I'm out going through that again.
Micky: Oh. [smiles and nods]
By this time I have my book pulled out for him to sign now. And Bex with her order form.
Micky: Does anybody have a pen?
What do we do we go digging around for a pen. my mom has a pen ready but then he goes. I swear he did that to see how many people would dig around for pens.
Micky: Oh wait nevermind.
He digs in his pants and pulls out a sharpy. He signs my book.
Rebecca!!: I liked your vest.
Micky:Oh you like that stlye?
Erica!!: Oh and by the way we have a little gift for you--
Micky: Could you leave it at the front desk?
Erica!!: The front desk?
Micky: Yeah just leave at the front desk and I'll get it later.
This is when he starts walking away. You could tell he wanted to get back in there I tought it was really sweet because there was othere people in there waiting for him. Sorry Bex I was being a Micky hog.
Erica!!: Oh ok so just leave it up there for you.. at the front desk and they'll give it to you?
Micky: Yep... (i think he said he wanted to get back in there for the others I really think he did. But I looked over at Becca)
Erica!!: Oh do you think you could sign her thing before you go?
Micky: Oh yeah sure.
He comes back over to Rebecca!! gets the pen back out and he's doing this with a smile on his face. Now I know why I love this man
Rebecca!!: I got this in the mail last year I was wondering if you could sign it?
Micky: Oh no problem.
Bex, I swear he raised his eyebrows :) like he knew what it all was.
Rebecca!!: Thank you very much.
He walks away. Still smiling.
I still think i ask him again if I leave it on the front desk and he says yep just leave it under my name. And he goes back into the bar. I swear thank you sooooo much Micky for signing are stuff and letting us not have to come into the bar:) It meant so much to us. And knowing that we could talk to you without dying.

End Erica!!'s Take and back to Rebecca!!'s

Micky, I owe you a fruit basket too :)

Oh but wait! The story! We were going to give it to him there but he said if we left it at the front desk he'd get it. He promised. So we wished Fuzzy Duc good-bye and gave her a big hug for everything and thanked her again so so much. Then Miki helped Erica!! with giving the package to the front desk. We had discovered that the lollypop was broken at the concert but we're going to blame it on the hotel. I had also learned that Erica!! had put my drawing in front instead of the back like it originally was! Thanks Erica!! (can you hear the sarcasm?) Then we walked Miki out to her car so she could get something and/or put something away plus she was going to show us what else she and Fuzzy Duc had brought. She was flipping quickly through her photo album and things and showed us pictures of Coco and everything. We must have said good-bye three times! We just couldn't leave. She kept telling us stuff and we kept listening! It was fantastic! We gave her one last big hug and we finally had to say goodnight though it probably should have been good morning since it was 1:00am by now!

I would just like to take the time to say thank you to all the great people we met: Tracy, Jamie, Sarah, Christine, Scorp, Fuzzy Duc, and Miki. But mostly, I personally have to thank Erica!! for having me along. Without her, I would not have been able to go and I would have missed the greatest day of my summer. Everything that could go right did go right and Erica!! I am in your debt. I owe you a SSB performance!

And so you know, Erica!!'s mother was paid back the minute I got home.