Doug Van Pelt

Feelin' Satisfied?

I remember back in September of 1978. It was my first real rock and roll concert (seeing Bobby Sherman at Six Flags with my family doesn't count as a rock concert -- but being at Anaheim Stadium with 78,000 Southern Californians bent on partying and beautiful girls in bikinis asking me if I had any acid -- that counts...).

It was a four-band bill that started in the afternoon. I was in the back on the grass for Sammy Hagar and then found a river of people migrating back and forth from the front. I started swimming upstream. I saw one of my favorite bands at the time -- van Halen -- from a good vantage point. I was even closer for Black Sabbath (of whom I'd never heard one song before), and then I was front row center for Boston.

I'll never forget the sound. Tom Scholz' Rockman guitar amplification units cut through the outdoor sky with a perfect clarity. I felt as if I was at home listening to a compact disc of their album with headphones on -- and CDs weren't even around yet! When I say I was front row center, I meant it. I could hold the outfield fence in my hands and was at the very center of the stage. During the song, "Feelin' Satisfied," singer Brad Delp looked right at me and smiled as he clapped his hands, his cue to get me and the audience to start clapping along. I didn't budge my stubborn arms crossed position. I tell ya, I was definitely feelin' satisfied about that!

hehe

That's my stupid concert story of the day. It is slightly inaccurate, as far as the "first real rock and roll concert" account goes, as I was present at Explo '72 in Dallas, with Larry Norman, Johnny Cash, and (believe it or not) Kris Kristofferson. I guess that counts, but I was there with my parents. So this event is the first one where I was unsupervised (and high on pot). I was a young man (in the middle of my "prodigal state") that was intent on living a sinful lifestyle. The only restraint I ever wanted to show was whatever would keep me out of trouble -- from the law or my parents. I remember knowing that my parents knew about "what happened at those dang rock and roll concerts." They had forbid me to go to the California Jam II festival/concert the Spring before, where 300,000 Southern Californians partied at Ontario Motor Speedway to the tunes of Santana, Ted Nugent, Bob Welch, Heart, Mahogany Rush, Dave Mason, Aerosmith, and many others. I bet Lester Bangs was there. I overheard my grandad tell my parents, "I'm glad you didn't let your kids go. I heard that there was total debauchery there, with drugs and nudity..." When I returned from the Van Halen concert, my dad asked me how it was. About all I said was: "It was great! I found a ticket." (You know how communicative teenagers can be with their parents). Later I found a 3x5 card in his desk with the words, "It was great! I found a ticket." I'm not sure if they regret letting me go (I went with the sons of the Air Force Base Protestant Chaplain, who "must've been fine, upstanding young men," but were really the biggest partiers of our partying school), but this lifestyle that I was dead-set on pursuing would have happened sooner or later. I was fascinated with the world. Like a young Israeli that'd only heard stories about Egypt. I wanted to go...and bolted for it at the soonest chance.

I hope I can cultivate a love for Jesus and help nurture it for our kids, so that they don't run into sin like I did. What can you do as a parent to help your kids make wise choices?

Here's an interesting tidbit (Luke 11:52): "'Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hinded those who were entering.'" Perhaps making the "key to knowledge" available for young ones, training them how to learn, giving them access to the Truth, God's Word, will put them in touch with learning, which is something that they can take through their entire life... Hmmm.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at May 17, 2006 08:49 AM