Mr Al Young Dot Com

Sunday night we took a short overnight trip to the Gold County of Northern California to see Huey Lewis and The News in concert.  Yes, Huey Lewis is still around after all these years.  It was a bit of deja vu for us, as Huey Lewis was the second concert my wife ever attended way back in Junior High.  I have seen Huey Lewis in concert before….22 years ago in 1985.   I just graduated from High School and took a trip to Hawaii where I caught a Huey Lewis concert on my vacation.

This time we saw him at the Ironstone winery in Murphy’s, about a 2 1/2 hour drive from the Bay Area.  I have been to the winery before, but never took in a concert at the amphitheater.  It is a nice place to have a concert.  Its a park like setting with a lot of grass, and very intimate.  Even from the lawn, we were able to see and hear very well.   Its not way out in left field like most lawn seating areas.

Huey Lewis looks great for being 50 years old, and sounds the same.  He played all his old hits, and sounded very polished, as you would expect for someone doing this for the past 20 plus years.  Huey Lewis still tours although to much smaller venues these days.  He plays in state and county fairs and at different wineries.  You can even buy a 2007 concert tour t-shirt.  Most bands of the 80’s if they are still around do not have a current t-shirt.  So, at the fair, you see their fans pull out their old tattered, poor fitting concert t-shirts from high school.  Not a pretty sight.  The crowd was in the 45-50 year old range, some with young families.  The kind of people you expect to be at at winery.  It was a much different crowd back in 1985.  Back than, Huey’s fans were barely of legal drinking age, and they were not drinking wine.  It was a very relaxing evening of sipping wine and listening to Huey Lewis under the stars.

Opening for Huey Lewis was The English Beat.  I thought I remembered The English Beat as a techno pop dance band from the 80’s, but this band had a more reggae sound.  They were very good and put the crowd in a festive mood.   If anyone with a better memory of 80’s music, please set me straight on if this is the same English Beat I’m thinking of.

Coincidentally, the date of the concert is also our 7 year anniversary.  Our lives and appearance sure have changed from the last time we saw Huey Lewis in concert, but its also changed a lot in the past 7 years. The good thing about getting married in 2000 is that its easy to remember how long you have been married.  As we get older, we tend to forget things like how old we are or how long we have been married.  I just have remember we got married in 2000, and had a kid every other year after that….except for a break in 2006(maybe for good).

Since 2000, our lives has dramatically changed.  We are much busier than we were when we got married.  As if having 2 young kids is not enough work, we still maintain a very busy travel schedule, and I am now self-employed. I’ve been told that two of the most difficult things to do after you get married and have kids is to:

1. Travel
2. Be self employed 

I could see where you may have less obstacles and freedom when your are single, but I could not imagine tackling these things without the support and encouragement of my wife on the home front.  I think more important than being “free” to pursue your passions, is to have a supportive partner at home.   I think if I was still single, I would still be at my government job waiting for retirement even though I would be hating it.  Its only with my wife’s support and encouragement that I finally had the courage to take the plunge and try something new.  As for travel, we still do a lot of traveling, but a different kind of travel.  If you want to travel with kids, you have to have a strong team, and my wife is the anchor of that team, from planning our travel, and getting everything organized, and everyone where they are supposed to be.  I would’nt dream of going somewhere with the kids without my wife.  My tips on traveling with the kids all come from watching my wife in action.  So, in the 7 years of marriage, I have grown tremendously and am much happier.  I have been blessed with a very supportive and patient wife, and family.  She runs the home, and tends to our needs so efficiently that it is easy to take her for granted as I pursue my business interests, but an anniversary date is a good time to reflect and appreciate our spouse.  Who knows where I would be today if I did not take the “plunge” seven years ago.