| Ever since I watched the 9/11 disaster from our | | | | rock concerts and hanging out in the dressing room |
| summer home on the shores of New Jersey, this | | | | with kids who are my age divided by three, that I |
| nervous Nellie has been a bit squeamish about going | | | | would be used to it by now. But long ago I have |
| through the long Lincoln Tunnel that runs under the | | | | given up my pathetic attempts to blend in and not |
| river from New Jersey and opens into the city. The | | | | be so obviously, "What is she doing here?" The truth |
| city that I constantly dreamed of as a child, and that | | | | is that even the 'clueless' figure out that my husband |
| has for a long time held my heart, New York. But it | | | | and I have to be someone's parents. |
| finally took nothing stronger than a mother's love to | | | | Trust me, if you ever want to feel your age, just go |
| pull me back again to the city of survival. My son, the | | | | to a rock concert. It is a humbling experience being |
| rock star, was coming to town. | | | | with kids who never think they are ever going to be, |
| We arrived at Le Bar Bat on 57th Street where my | | | | nor look as old as you. |
| husband and I were quickly ushered in behind the "big | | | | But in the end there is sweet revenge for old folks |
| red velvet rope" guarded by men with muscles | | | | like us. While others are tramping through the cold to |
| bigger than Arnold's. | | | | city garages, or waiting in the chilly night wind for a |
| Inside the door, we were stamped like a pork rump | | | | cab, bus, or subway to take them home, life can be |
| that has passed FDA inspection. From there a host | | | | sweet for the parents of a rock star. |
| herded us toward a pretty young woman in a | | | | For instance, when your son gives you a lift at 3 a.m. |
| fetching blue wig with a figure to die for who tagged | | | | back to your Chelsea apartment in his new bright |
| us with Technicolor hospital-like bracelets that would | | | | tour bus that is as long as a New York City |
| allow us two free drinks. | | | | cross-town block and the color of Christmas. And |
| She then moved us on to another amazingly | | | | better than that, when he then drops you smack in |
| handsome young man with the whitest teeth I have | | | | front of your canopied door, you know you have a |
| ever seen who pinned us with flashing lapel pins that | | | | special life. |
| said something I couldn't for the life of me read | | | | So what if the few bleary-eyed people wandering in |
| upside down. It could have said "Big Jerk for Letting | | | | the streets at that ungodly hour were scratching |
| This be Pinned on You", for all I knew. He then sent | | | | their heads at us two tired button-down seniors |
| us on to another beautiful girl wearing a pink wig who | | | | hopping (actually dragging) out of this crimson |
| decked us out in fluorescent blue neck ring. I think | | | | machine made to carry only young, hip people. And, |
| she said something about free massages and Tarot | | | | okay, what if being supportive of your kid's things |
| card reading, but before I could question my hearing | | | | kind of makes you seem crazy sometimes. The truth |
| that was altered severely by my rock concert | | | | for us is that there are no better perks that stepping |
| earplugs, we were moved along like a herd of cattle | | | | out of a big red bus in the middle of the morning |
| by the swell of enthusiastic Tonic fans behind us. | | | | after a great night of forgetting how old you really |
| One would think that after a few years of attending | | | | are. Life just doesn't get better than that! |