Ballseye Remembers When...

 ...as a married adult, I could buy a brick of decent 22 LR ammo at under 2¢ per round; I got it less expensive than that in my adult years before marriage but cannot recall the price then.

To my amazement, I was at a gun show (of all places) in Yonkers NY or White Plains in the mid to late 1990s, NY when I found bricks of CCI Blazer 22 LR ammo for sale @ $9.00 per brick - making it .018¢ per round. At that time, prices had recently increased and bricks of 22 LR were going for at least $12.00 to $15.00 at similar shows. I think that was the first time I bought, let along had heard of, CCI Blazer ammo. I was impressed enough with it to buy more over the years. It went bang like 99.9% of the time with only rare failures to fire, was pretty accurate in most of my 22s, was inexpensive & plentiful and those attributes made up for the fact it was and remains one of the dirtiest 22 LR rounds I have ever fired.

 

Those days are long gone but 22 LR ammunition is still one of the best buys in the world of ammo purchases as you can find it widely available at, or a bit under, 6¢ per round and even can find it from several dealers at 5¢ per round.

All the best,

GB

A Little First Major Rock Concert Nostalgia

Do you know where you were at, with certainty, for at least any two hour or somewhat longer period (of your choice), on December 11, 1970? My guess is that you can guess but that is it for most of you - just a guess. Although I can not state the exact hours, I do know where I was situated for at least a couple of the hours on that exact day. I was in Nosebleed Heaven, to the right of the stage at maybe a 60 degree angle in front of it, in Madison Square Garden. That was to see and listen to Grand Funk Railroad in concert. What I did not know, or at least do not recall knowing back then, was that the backup band would be Bloodrock. Heck, when I think of it now, I do not remember knowing about a band by that name back then (damn those aged little grey cells) but I do recall a couple of their songs. Must have been them though because it says so here: https://www.concertarchives.org/concerts/grand-funk-railroad-bloodrock-834fc761-27ec-41e9-a5e9-e3ff89a9cd20.

 

I always do remember though what amounts to basically three things in general about that concert:

 

Number one is who accompanied me: I went with my two friends, from Glendale, NY - Jackie R and Steven M (my best bud back then). Sadly, I have no clue as to what they are up to or where they are now; we've been out of touch for many years.

 

The second is that while we went to see Grand Funk Railroad, we were much more impressed by Bloodrock as they put on a much better performance and mind you - Grand Funk Railroad was not bad. Bloodrock's songs D.O.A. and Sable & Pearl had the audience going wild with applause as did others. They got a longer amount of applause and the kids (yeah, most of us were teenagers) there called out much longer for an encore from them than did the bunch of us for an encore by Grand Funk! As I seem to vaguely recall, the lead singer of Grand Funk expressed his disapproval about that. It really is funny I cannot recall shit almost anything else about them, it is just that concert performance and those two songs light up my little gray cells & has them dancing with a memory of musical delight. 

 

I said, I remember three things in general about that date. The third that I remember is that I was 15 at the time by a couple or few months or so and it was the first time I smoked. Now, it is for you to surmise, within the depths of your own psyche, to what type of smoke I refer - does he mean, you may wonder, something such as: a pipe filled with pipe weed as in The Hobbit, cigarettes filtered or unfiltered & self rolled or not, cigars, or something else - cause I ain't telling. And I ain't telling, not because I don't remember but rather because I love to stir up folks' imaginations and keep them guessing about me. Whatever it was, I am happy to say I quit smoking & chewing tobacco long ago.

 

All that aside - who/what, where & when was the first concert you attended? Bear in mind please that I am asking about major Rock concerts - not about: Country/Western, not Blues nor Bluegrass, not Classical nor Opera, not CRAP RAP, not your buddies in a garage, not school shows, not barroom wonder bands either - and not anything less than a major Rock concert.

 

All the best,

Glenn B