Thursday, March 1, 2012

My Almost Two Encounters With Davy Jones

While I was enrolled as a student in Pennsylvania's Susquehanna University, Davy Jones, of The Monkees owned a farm in the geographical area and was spotted numerous times downtown by fellow students of mine.

I never got to meet him.

I came close -- twice -- each time missing him by one day. The first time was early in my college years and he was enjoying dinner at a popular local restaurant the night before I ate there myself. You guessed it, later in my college years, he ate at this very same restaurant the night AFTER I had.

Now this is only relevant because I've been an avid fan of The Monkees from gaining sentience (which coincidentally falls around their 10th anniversary of 1976, not the MTV catapulted 20th anniversary in 1986) when Boston's channel 56 ran The Monkees tv series in early afternoons back to back with the Banana Splits. Fortunately, my inability to ever meet Davy had no negative effect upon my meeting his fellow bandmates Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz closer to home.

Thanks for all of the wonderful music (some of the album tracks are better than the singles) and for the wonderful memories (everybody remembers the Brady Bunch appearance, does anyone remember the Scooby Doo episodes?). With Davy's passing my winning concert tickets to their 45th anniversary tour in June 2011 are that much more special, as the tour came to an abrupt, confusing end shortly thereafter.

Rest in peace, Artful Dodger

1 comment:

  1. That was very sweet MO. I was just stunned by his passing. A part of my childhood went with him...

    ReplyDelete