Love my concerts

I got hooked on concerts when I was young. I remember seeing the band Cream on Sunset and a Coke cost more than I made an hour.

Over the years I've seen a lot of great concerts. I've seen Sinatra at Universal, Willie Nelson at the Fox, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder at the Bowl, Paul McCartney in Fresno, Elton John and the Eagles at Dodger Stadium, George Strait and Lionel Richie in Vegas.

When Laurie and I travel we always check out the location to see if there is a good concert going on, it's just a fun thing we do! But like everything else in this post-COVID world, our fun thing has gotten a little pricey!

For most concerts if you want to be close enough to match the lips with the sound you have to pay an easy $250-300 a ticket. Then of course you're looking at $50 a ticket processing fee. This one always amazes me, is this the fee for feeding the computer? Now you're looking at $75-100 dollars for parking and you're still hiking across vast wastelands to find your car.

For those of us over 50 making the two or three hour drive home after the concert is no longer a viable option. So now you're looking at a couple of hundred to get a hotel.

Taking the family to a ballgame isn't much better. By the time you've paid for four tickets, of course the parking, the mandatory Dodger Dogs and frozen ice cream, you're looking at a second on your house!

In retrospect that $1.50 for my Coke at the Cream concert so long ago doesn't look so bad!

Marty Pay is a contributing writer for The Loop newspaper. He can be reached at Marty Pay Farmers Insurance (661) 822-3737.