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Before and after COVID-19's high impact, Penny and I would travel to American cities one or both of us have never visited.
In part, our citY shopping list included Buffalo, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Denver, Cleveland, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and St. Louis.
Many of those cities are on the "come back" viability trail.
Our most recent trek took us to Milwaukee, a city of great museums, historic buildings, distinctive neighborhoods, beer, and more beer, of "Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley" television fame, along with wonderful people.
Before our visit, we laid out a plan of what we would like to see and where to stay. On Milwaukee's convention and visitors bureau website popped up information about a Happy Together Tour concert at the historic Pabst Theater, which opened in 1895. The performance was on the last day of our stay.
The tour has been making concert rounds since 1984, beginning with the Turtles. Penny is a Motown girl and music lover. Me, too. However, as a former college dance disc jockey, I am deeply into mid-1960s to mid-1970s rock music.
Quickly, I purchased tickets for Penny and me to enter the "way back" machine (recall Mr. Peabody and Sherman).
Appearing on stage were the Turtles, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, the Grass Roots, the Vogues, Classics IV, and Rhode Island's the Cowsills.
Years ago, Northeast Michigan baby boomers listened to those groups on WKNX, WTAC, WCFL, WLS, WBZ and CKLW AM radio stations and at the Alpena Armory teen dances on Friday and Saturday nights.
Our seats were great for viewing and enjoying each performance. We were surrounded by 1,300-plus gray-haired Baby Boomers, some accompanied with their walking canes, push walkers, and wheelchairs, all ready to rock, sing, and scream.
The Cowsills kicked off the night with five classic hits, including the theme from the stage performance "Hair." The audience went wild, standing and waving their hands in the 128-year-old Victorian-era theater.
Next on stage were the Vogues, who belted out "You're the One," followed by "Five O'Clock World." When the latter song began, a slender, 70-plus-year-old woman, attired in a black mini dress, leaped over five or six seated attendees, working her way to the aisle. She relived her youth with circa-1968 dance and body moves, which made many smile and gasp with envy. When all performances concluded, she made her way to the street corner in front of the Pabst Theater, continuing her moves to a nearby street drummer.
One just knew she drove her parents to the edge when she was 17 years old.
With all the other performers, the audience continued to go fully wild and sing along to "Over You," "Temptation Eyes," "Stormy," "Indian Lake," "Midnight Confessions," and dozens more of great classics.
A Jumbotron screen was on the stage's rear wall, offering psychedelic videos and clips of each group performing well over 40 years ago on television shows such as "Shindig," "American Bandstand," "Dance Party," and "Hullabaloo."
It was two hours of once again recalling your youth, and, perhaps, later, steaming up the car windows overlooking nearby Lake Michigan.
Various Happy Together Tour YouTube videos are online. Slip on your go-go boots, headband, bead necklace, rose-tinted glasses, and favorite tie-dye shirt to again enjoy America's biggest and best music era.
For more information on current and forthcoming Happy Together concert tours, visit happytogethertour.com.
Jeffrey D. Brasie is a retired health care CEO. He frequently writes historic feature stories and op-eds for various Michigan newspapers. As a Vietnam-era veteran, he served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve. He served on the public affairs staff of the secretary of the Navy. He grew up in Alpena and resides in suburban Detroit.