Wednesday, June 04, 2008

When was Donovan in Albuquerque?



I'm hoping someone who comes by here will know when this was. One might think *I* would know, as I've saved the poster all these years and I was at the concert.

Here are my clues: It was either 1968 or 1969. I'm leaning toward 1968, because I went with Jon Tsosie and DiAna Trujillo in Jon's mom's Impala or some such quite-large sedan. Jon drove us from Espanola to Albuquerque, and I drove back so that he and DiAna could have some kissy-face in the back seat. Jon was 6'1" or so, and I didn't notice at first that I couldn't reach the brake. I'm thinking that by 1969 I was driving long enough that I would've thought to adjust a car seat before I drove.

So I couldn't reach the brake, and I didn't want to disturb the private time of my best friends who hardly ever got to be alone because one was Indian and one's parents didn't let him or her date Indians (and I won't say which was which to protect the reputations of prejudiced folk from way back).

So driving from Albuquerque to Santa Fe was fine. Dark, no lights, not the highway where deer jump out. Going through Santa Fe wasn't as bad as it is nowadays. There were probably only six or eight lights on St. Francis, whereas now they're beyond number. I used just gas and engine to get through town, and never had a for-real red light, which was good.

Santa Fe to Espanola was fine too. The highway was four lanes to Pojoaque (because the the Santa Fe/Los Alamos traffic) and though now it's four-lane all over the place, these were ancient days, and gasoline was probably 39¢ or so, seriously.
Anyway...
So the last rise into Espanola from Sombrillo used to have a rest area at the top, a very easy exit, and so that's where I rolled to a stop, turned the car off, and told Jon he needed to drive because I hadn't been able to reach the brake for 80 miles and I was kinda stressed.

The concert was very nice. On the east end of the Johnson Gym floor, there was a platform—a stage, but very little visible equipment, all covered with rugs. Donovan played all by himself in the center, with flowers. Security was very humorless. The crowd was sedate. A few girls ventured up to put a flower on the stage, but the guards were very wary, and stood always between them and Donovan, and as soon as the flower touched the stage, the girl had to go back to her seat. The good thing, though, was we could all see and hear. Except for sing-alongs and applause the crowd was nearly silent.

We sat up in the bleachers on the south side fairly close. There were chairs on the floor, but I think we could see better.

A few years later I took a Psych 102 test right in that very same area, with people in alternating every-other seats with a badillion proctors to keep us from cheating.

Years later I saw Donovan in a coffee house in Santa Fe, and if I ever find the notes I took that night I'll transcribe them. Both concerts were wonderful.

Ray Hidalgo, whoever you are, nice poster. I suppose you still have the original, but just in case you've lost the art, here it is. Put the year on next time, though. Thanks. The original is a 5x8" flyer, smaller than it shows here. My scanner creates delusions of grandeur. If you click it you can get to an even bigger one, and print it out and give it to your kids who are Donovan fans. Maybe I'm the only one with a kid who's a Donovan fan, but anyone who's seen Holly's MySpace will know she is one.

7 comments:

Cap'n Franko said...

A quick check of the calendar shows that October 1 was on a Wednesday, as specified in the poster, in 1969.

Like the song lyric says, "In '69 I was 21 and called the road my own" in my VW bus! Groovy, man!

Sandra Dodd said...

Frank, thank you. I didn't even notice the Wednesday.

So bummer.... I'd been driving a whole year and still wasn't smart enough to move the car seat up closer.

Robyn Coburn Writer/Artist said...

For some reason the name Ray Hidalgo made bells go off. I've read that somewhere. I did some googling and, after getting rid of the Blu-ray disc hits, came up with this site:
http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/ar/ray-hidalgo/12237.html

Your poster might be worth mucho dinero from an apparently famous graphic artist. Still not sure where I know the name from though.

Sandra Dodd said...

Thanks, Robyn! That's cool. I have three of them. :-)
I'm glad you thought to look that up.

Robyn Coburn Writer/Artist said...

Want another six degrees connection thing?

In 1997 worked as Set Decorator on a movie called "Love Kills" costarring Donovan Leitch, the son of the original Donovan.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0500611/

Stressful shoot, but not because of Donovan.

VanHelsing said...

You probably won't get this since it's been so long since you posted, but i was at this concert. It was my second one and I was 14. It was just as you described it, put me right back there.

Sandra Dodd said...

VanHelsing, thanks for the note! I'm glad I saw it. I get an e-mail notification of a pending note, and then I approve it, so as long as I can see my e-mails, I'll still be getting notes. :-)

Good that you were there, too. It was a very sweet concert.