Dimebag Darryl is Dead, and I'm Old.

So, I'm out at lunch today, and talking to the cashier "J", who is usually my waitress, and provides the most excellent service. Since she's real cool, I'm a friendly person, and I do enjoy the perks of the service you receive when you're friendly with the servers, I asked her how she enjoyed her vacation last week.

"It was great! We went to Ozzfest, and had a blast!"

Oh yeah? I went to the very fist Ozzfest, back in '97, and had a blast. We were just expecting to see a Black Sabbath concert, and couldn't quite figure out why it was starting at 11:00 in the morning. When we got there, we were extremely excited to find out that it was a whole day concert event. We were amazed by the number of great bands we were about to see. Let me just say, that this was, by far, one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

Downset, Cold Chamber, Powerman 5000, Machinehead, Type O Negative, Fear Factory, and my favorite three, Pantera, Black Sabbath, and Ozzy. I saw every single friend and acquaintance I knew in Whitman and Bridgewater at Great Woods that day. Every. Single. One. No exaggeration here... If I'm lyin', I'm dyin'.

Debbie, Joe, Pat, and I were just chilling out on the bleachers watching the crowd, waiting for the real good bands to start. PM5K hadn't even hit the main stage yet, I don't think. There was an older couple sitting right in front of us (when I say older, I mean mid 30's. Keep in mind that this took place about 10 years ago!). They turned around, and they were both wearing face powder that made them look dead, black lipstick, and the thickest liquid black mascara that I've seen since I left Junior High. They kind of freaked us hippie stoners out.

"When is Marilyn Manson playing?" they asked.

"Um... I think I heard that he cancelled." We replied.

"Oh", they said, with obvious disappointment. I swear, I think the guy was going to cry.

We laughed at them for a little while, and sat back. All of a sudden, out of nowhere walks Ed Ballard. He came up and began to talk to us about the show, in the definitive Ed fashion. Except Ed was drunk as a skunk, and stumbles over absolutely nothing, and would have fallen to certain death or injury, had the two middle-aged Marilyn Manson fans not broken his fall.

"Aww, don't worry dudes, that's just me falling down!" Ed says.

The Marilyn Manson fans proceeded to get up and walk away, as we were trying real hard not to bust out laughing in Ed's face.

It was just another memorable moment in an awesome day. Great Woods was filled with every type of person imaginable, and they all came there to see just one person. Ozzy.

There were long grey haired scraggly old hippies, and big beefed up bikers, young kids with spikey hair, and chicks who were allowing their boyfriends to walk them around on dog collars. There were little kids wearing rock-n-roll t-shirts, and skanky ho's walking around wearing barely nothing at all.

Man, that concert was a blast!

For us the real concert started when Pantera came on stage. Don't get me wrong, all the other bands were great, but we hadn't really heard of them. So, to us, they were all just a real long opening act.

So, out comes Pantera. They promptly proceeded to puke on stage. Niiiiiice.

After Pantera, Ozzy came out and did some solo stuff. He was barefoot. Where Pantera just puked. Wicked nice.

Then Black Sabbath came on to finish the night off. They played a lot of their great songs, but the best one for me that night was Fairies Wear Boots. It's a great song anyways, even better live. Especially after spending all day in the hot summer sun, and drinking water from a spigot (hey, I wasn't paying $5 for a small bottle of Aquafina).

But, I've sidetracked. Which is just another indicator that I'm getting old. So, let me get back to the main point of this post.

"Hey, I went to the first Ozzfest back in '97!" I told J. "Sabbath, Ozzy, Pantera, PM5K were there... It was great!"

"Those were all great bands! Ozzy didn't make it to this show, but we saw Disturbed and System of a Down!"

And I was immediately jealous. I wouldn't mind seeing System of a Down. Just last week Beff and I were crusing through Woodville blasting SOAD and screaming at cute redneck guys.

So, I leave the pizza parlor, and head back to my dreadful job. And then, it hit me. It hit me slightly harder than a ton of bricks. Do you remember Wayne's World? The scene where Garth is in the diner, daydreaming about the pretty girl? And all of a sudden he's knocked out of his chair?

Yeah, it hit me something like that.

"Those WERE all great bands!"

"WERE all great bands!"

"WERE"

That's the main word here. Were. As in at one time they were all great bands. As in back in the day those bands were great, but now they're all moldy oldies.

WERE.

Dimebag Darryl is dead. Dead! He will never puke on stage again.

WERE.

As in those bands were popular, but now they really aren't anymore, and I'm old. I probably would feel old and out of place at today's Ozzfest.

I'm not "with it" any more. I'm not even sure that I know what "it" is.

Wow, I was only 22 when I went to that concert. 22!!! That seems like forever ago! For crying out loud, I was just a kid! A kid so wet behind the ears that I should have worn an extra absorbent chamois cloth turban just so the wet from behind my ears didn't puddle up around my feet!

Wow, that seems like forever ago.

When I was 22, I hadn't even lived on my own yet. I worked at a pizza shop as a delivery girl! I had only been able to drink legally for a year and a half. I had only been driving for SIX years. I drove a GEO! It was my first car! I had only had a checking account for two years! I made $6.10 an hour! I could stay out until 2 or 3 in the morning and be fine the next day!

Wow.

Now I own my own home. OWN. I am one of the top performers in my department at work. I don't even get carded when I buy alcohol or cigarettes anymore. I've been driving for 15 years now, and drive my sweet silver truck (still only my third vehicle, but it's PAID OFF!). I have a BALANCED checking account, and can trust myself with a debit card now. I make considerably more than $6.10 an hour, but it's still not quite enough. It's 11:00 at night now, and I'm rushing to finish this up so I can hit the sack. I haven't seen 3 AM in a long time, and the last time I did, I paid for it the next day. Staying up that late just isn't the same when you can't sleep past 7 in the morning.

Hmm.

Realizing that I'm getting old somewhat freaked me out this afternoon. But, now that I think about it, it's not really that big of a deal.