I call this story:
How Bob Dylan bought me a Harley.
It is October 1973 and the Bob Dylan & the Band tour rumors were hot and heavy. Bob hadn't really toured in about 8 years and after wrecking himself on his motorcycle people weren't sure if he could even pull this off. It was supposed to be a tour to support Planet Waves but they only played one song from that album in the shows I saw, the classic Forever Young. I want to say that the tour was announced in the first week in November and you could only get tickets by mail order. This was the first time I had ever run across that. The start date was set, no orders would be taken early which led me to make a plan.
Off to the Bank of America branch in Oceanside California I went. I guess I should say that I was a Corporal in the Marine Corps at the time stationed at Camp San Mateo (a sub base of Camp Pendleton) in Weapons 2/7 (2nd Battalion, 7th Marines). It was just like Gomer Pyle back then. Living in Quonset huts, you weren't allowed to own civilian clothes or have a vehicle on base unless you were married or a Staff Sergeant so most of us rented a locker at the bus station for a buck a week and kept our 3 or 4 "Goin to LA or San Diego" clothes in it. Ok, back to the bank. Tickets were $10 each and you could only order 4 at once. So I told the nice lady behind the counter that I wanted 24 $40 money orders and to take it out of my savings account. That took a while to fill out all the money orders and then I had to get stamps and envelopes to put them all in.
I don't remember the exact date but I do know it was a Monday that the first orders would be accepted. I put in for one day of leave for that Monday to make sure I could accomplish my plan and get back in time. Saturday morning comes and off I go to the Oceanside bus station to change clothes and get a ticket to LA. Once in LA I have to figure out what bus will take me to Inglewood where the Forum was. Get to Inglewood, find a motel for $7 or 8 bucks for 2 nights (Military discount! - Motel 6 was called that for a reason) and then proceed to walk to the Forum so I'll know where it is. I find out it isn't close to the motel, maybe 3 miles away. Eventually I get there, scope it out and then proceed to look for the Inglewood post office. Of course, that isn't close to the Forum either about 2 miles away and still 2 miles from the motel. After finding the Post Office I then had to figure out the fastest way to get there from my motel. I don't know if it was the fastest but it worked. Took the bus down to Santa Monica where I usually hung out when I was in LA and blew Saturday night. Woke up late Sunday morning. hung out at the motel pool but couldn't go swimming since I didn't have a suit, ate at Jack In The Box, I think I lived on Jumbo Jacks back then and waited for night to fall.
Finally it gets to be about 10:30 and I gather up my 24 sealed addressed envelopes and off I go to the Inglewood Post office. Yes, I know it is closed but the midnight shift is going to come on and they start showing up at 11:30. I find a postal worker that could hand stamp my envelopes after midnight (that would be Monday if you are keeping track) and bring them out to me. Had to ask a few guys and it cost me $20 but it got done. The Office at the Forum doesn't open until 8:30 but I know there are people there at 7 so off to a bar I passed on my recon walk to kill some time and then to the all night dinner to waste another 4 hours. Eventually, it is time to walk to the Forum and so off I go. I get there before 7 and there isn't a car or a person in sight. The Forum is much bigger surrounded by acres of totally empty parking lot. As I'm walking around a car does show up - Inglewoods finest and they want to know just what the hell I'm doing. A little BS and the old Military ID solves that problem and just about that time a few workers are showing up. One of them works in the office and she was getting there early to prepare of the deluge of ticket request they expected later in the day. We stand around and talk for a few, she can't be but a year or two older than I am at that time and I end up giving her my stack of envelopes. Nothing left to do but go back to the base and wait.
A few weeks go bye and a trickle of tickets come in, all 2nd and 3rd row and then one day about 15 sets of 4 show up and inside one of the envelopes is a note from the girls at the Forum office. To the best of my remembrance:
Dear Ray,
I hope your club really enjoys the show.
The girls in the office.
and it was signed by 4 or 5 of them
My Marine Club I guess.
Now for reasons I don't understand the 3 concerts at the Forum were the night of Feb 13th, an afternoon show on the 14th and then the last show of the tour the night of the 14th. Now I'm holding on to 20 tickets for the Wednesday Night show, 20 for the afternoon show and 54 for the last show of the tour and every one is 2 and 3rd row, mostly 2nd. I came to find out the 1st row was reserved for press, guests and the better dressed. I make sure I put in for leave well in advance, nobody takes leave in February anyway so there wasn't any problem and off I go back to the hotel and then to the Forum to scalp my tickets. Sold them all in minutes at $75 a pop. Went back for the afternoon show the next day and being in the middle of the day on a Thrusday no less sorta dampened the demand but i still got $40-50. The night show finally arrives and the entire LA music scene is there. I have bidding wars for some of my tickets and the rest are selling for even more then the first show. I did get to talk to Carly Simon for a minute since she was sitting directly in front of me. She wanted to know what was up with my haircut. Damn she was hot back then.
So here I am at 11PM on the edge of LA walking around with over $5 grand in cash on my way back to the hotel room where I didn't sleep a wink because every sound was somebody coming to take my money. Got on the bus, didn't even think of stopping at the bank in town, made it back to my base, stuffed all the money in a government envelope and took it to the 1st Sergeants office so he could put it in the safe until I could get to the bank. I told him I went to Vegas. The next week I bought a Harley Sportster XL 1000 courtesy of Mr. Dylan.
The End