The Second Coming

Al's been telling me about the love-ins at Greynolds Park back in the the '60's. He said that they were actually held across U.S. 1 in East Greynolds Park back then. There'd be a big flat bed truck for the band to set up, and whatever big name rock group was playing at Thee Image that weekend would give a free concert at the park on Sunday afternoon. Thee Image was located in a former bowling alley in what is now Sunny Isles Beach, and has long since been demolished to make way for still more high rise condo buildings.

Well, he told me that if you didn't have the few bucks to see your favorite group in air conditioned comfort on Friday or Saturday night you could see them for free on Sunday. One big advantage of the Sunday-in-the-park format was that since it was a peace loving crowd the cops mostly just minded their own business and pretended that the haze of smoke hanging over the crowd was due to so many people holding incense sticks in their hands. I've often wondered what it was really like back in those days. Just listening to Al isn't the same as having been there, I'm sure! Here's a photo of Al's VW Microbus from those good old days back in the 60's. http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6344/1997/1600/Blog%2070%20e.0.jpg

A few weeks ago somebody came up with the idea of having another Greynolds Park love-in after forty years. It was held in the main part of Greynolds Park and there was a pretty good turnout! Al let me ride on his shoulder so I could get a better view, but I sure wished that his hair was still below his shoulders so I had something to hang on to other than his big ears.

We met this cool chick (that's what Al still calls 'em) and the two of them chatted a bit about the old days. Al told her about the his '61 VW Microbus that he had back then. As I listened to the interesting stories they told of that long gone era it became obvious that their memories were were a bit on the hazy side. Was it the forty years that had passed or was it breathing all that haze in the past? I guess I'll never know.

On the way home Al said that he was trying his best to remember what she might have looked like as a teenager. I think that Al was really trying to remember if he'd ever had her in the back of his Microbus.