Bruce Springsteen and Understanding the American Dream

"You have to make up your mind whether you want to be a good citizen..,."  Ione Johnson, 6th grade teacher, Lewinsville Elementary School, McLean, Va. circa 1973

Ione Johnson, my 6th grade teacher was a force of nature. Standing approximately 5 and a half feet tall (or a little more) and just about as wide, Mrs. Johnson was the teacher you prayed you wouldn't get the next year when you were a 5th grader.  Tough and demanding, Mrs. Johnson expected alot out of her pupils, not only academically but from what she constantly harped on as "good citizenship".  If you did not act like a "good citizen" justice was swift and harsh in Ione Johnson's class.  She would place the offending "bad citizen" in the corner between the hinges and the class room door and then lean against it from the other side with all of her nearly 300 pound mass squeezing the bad citizenship and nearly the life out of her hapless victim.  I made sure I was a good citizen.

After matriculating from elementary school I went on to Longfellow Junior High, a holding cell for prepubescence adolescence for two years until the institution released its prisoners to the custody of McLean, Marshall and Falls Church High Schools.  It was in Longfellow Junior High when I made friends with one of the cool kids, Andy Littlejohn, who would go on to be one of my best friends.  Andy was also the first one to turn me on to a streetwise hipster songwriter and musician, Bruce Springsteen and his older siblings' record, "The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle" sometime around 1974 or '75.

Truth be told I did not pay a whole hell of a lot attention to Springsteen until late 1975, early '76 when I was over at Owen Thomas' house.  Owen was the coolest person I ever knew up until then.  He was a senior, was loved by all the girls and a very good tennis player.  Owen also strung racquets to make money.  It was while in Owen Thomas' bedroom/tennis shop (complete with parachute ceiling) watching him put the finishing touches on the strings to my Dunlop Maxply tennis racquet that I would hear the album that would change my life, "Born to Run".  Like most people who heard it I was mesmerized by the lyricism and memorized the lyrics to every song.  The album became my alter ego, so much so that at one point in the 9th grade that I even briefly dated a girl named Wendy.

Fast forward to my 51st birthday in November 2012.

Much like the election, I am still digesting last night's Springsteen concert so it's probably too early for me to get it completely in perspective.  After seeing Bruce and the E Streeters countless times dating back to my first show at Georgetown's McDonough Arena in the Fall of 1976 I thought nothing could amaze me anymore, but seeing one of my favorite bands, with my two children by my side,a few feet away from the stage and on my birthday is enough to reduce this writer to tears.

My senses are still overwhelmed by the aural onslaught, physical exertion, musicianship and sheer  perfectionism that goes into putting together a show like last night's three hour plus labor of love...(to be continued)