March 29, 2005
Ticket stubs a link to memories
Here's a nifty Web site: Ticketstubs.org.
The idea here is for people to submit stories associated with a memorable concert. You shoot a pic of the stub, send it in, and send a story to go with it. There are some good ones here, especially "The $40 Friendship," tied to a 1994 Tori Amos concert in Atlanta.
I also found a story about a Bruce Springsteen concert in 1978 in suburban Chicago memorable, at least in part because I was a teen in that part of the country at the same time (though I didn't make that show).
I don't see any classical concerts here (though there's one about being bored at the ballet), but I've got a good number of stubs, including a ducat for one of the last Florida Philharmonic concerts, at the Kravis Center in April 2003.
An OK concert, but the knowledge that it might be one of the group's final outings made things more than a little gloomy for me. There's something permanent-looking about an orchestra, and something marvelous, too, about the idea that so many people would gather together in one spot and bring something on paper alive. Ladies and gentlemen: The Code-Breakers!
But disappear they did, and it left a hole in the local arts scene.
A site with some interesting stories, and well worth a browse or two. I'm going to look through my stubs and see whether there's something else worth remembering; why, in other words, did I save the ticket?
Posted by at March 29, 2005 12:59 AM
There's something about the tangibility of the tickets that makes them even more precious these days, too.
Like you, the tickets I have always bring back instant memories, and in some cases they are even more precious because people I don't get to see anymore held them in their hands.
It's an actual link to the past, and also kind of a neat mental paper trail: At that time in my life, I was into this music, or that kind of theater experience.
Isn't it interesting how something so small and easy to lose carries such great weight?
I have a sentimental attachment to concert stubs as they provide that instant flashback to a moment or night. Whether it was R.E.M. in '86 or the Pixies show last year, I want to keep ahold of these tiny treasures. It takes a lot for me to toss one in the garbage.
Posted by: Dody at March 31, 2005 10:49 PM
