You just never know

Seeing that picture (over at PJ Media) reminds me of the years –maybe ‘64-69? — the Pearson family of Riverside, under the financial sponsorship of their church, the First Congregational, sponsored a monthly (?) teen dance at what was then Eckman Center and is now our Civic Center (the building was dilapidated even then, btw). We friends of Ridley Pearson would help out and got to see a lot of local bands, some of which were really good. One, "the Wild Weeds” really should have gone on to great things, but having heard nothing from them after that era, I suppose they didn’t.

But the real coup was booking a band from New Jersey in 1966, “The Young Rascals”, for six-hundred-bucks. They’d just begun getting some airplay, so we kind of, sort of, knew of them, but we feared the worse when they came out dressed in knickers and lace collars; uh oh. But they rocked the place — they were huge! A few months later their song “Good Lovin” hit the airwaves and went, I think, to number 1. They ditched the knickers, the collars, the “Young” from their name, and not least, $600 appearance fees for teen dances held in gyms.

Anyone else remember when the Doors played at the new GHS Student Center?

Fun times.