My Son's First 'Concert'

Saturday morning, my wife and I got everything ready, put our son in the car and off we went. He only knew we were going on a "special special" which is what we call a, well, special trip.

If you've watched your share of Thomas the Tank Engine episodes, you know it comes from there. But, it works, so we go with it.

It wasn't Thomas that morning, however. Rather, it was Elmo and Sesame Street Live. So, needless to say, he was wearing his Elmo shirt and his Elmo shorts.

We got to the arena and as soon as he saw the stage, he knew he was somewhere special. We told him he would soon be seeing all of his friends -- Elmo, Big Bird, Count, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie and Oscar -- up close. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the explanation, but as soon as the lights went down and the characters came out, his curiosity took over and his eyes were fixed on the stage.

The show was longer than expected -- an hour and a half, not counting a 15-minute intermission (more on that in a minute).

For the most part, he did great. Got a little antsy toward the end, but can't blame him for that. We were getting that way, too. All in all, though, I think he enjoyed his first concert.

So the announcement of an intermission wasn't 30 seconds old when a vendor carrying a bundle of what had to to be 100 Elmo balloons hit the main floor. Yeah, I'd say people flocked to him dropping probably $5 or $10 on one of these souveniers.

We did not go home with one, I'm proud to say.

Sesame Street does it right, though. Good show. Characters all looked great. It was a good day. And his first 'concert' was much different than mine -- which was KISS. Oh well, there will be time for that as he gets older! And no doubt I'll take him to his first rock show, too.