Bruce And The NJ Community Food Bank

With the corned beef in the slow cooker, Mike and I donned our green and headed over to the New Jersey Food Bank to volunteer our time. We were put in with a fine group called the "Spinners" and for two hours we all sorted through boxes of every imaginable item, placing each into very specific categorized boxes for placement on corresponding pallets. New friends were made and old ones were brought into memory...

During the Summer of Love, aka Woodstock - 1969, when I was 14 years old, my sister took me to the Long Branch beach at the corner of Ocean and Atlantic Avenues; it was the place my parents brought us for our summer vacations when we were younger.

My sis and I were lolling about on a blanket, discussing the possibility of my going to a music festival in August which was being held somewhere in upstate New York. Her friend Hal was there too, and I liked him because he tried to teach me how to "Hang Ten" on his surfboard. I thought I was cool since I was wearing my sister's white crochet bikini, but I couldn't get the hang of ten and fell off the board into the cold Atlantic water.

Then I noticed this skinny guy. He was doing something really bizarre, really strange! I'd never seen anyone stand solitary at the water's edge and play a guitar to the ocean. I was both fascinated and intrigued so I asked Hal what he was doing. "Oh, that's Bruce." Hal replied. "He always does that."

Bruce headed back to his blanket and I besieged my sister with questions about him. He was nineteen, he played in a band, he was playing that night! I decided it was time to meet Bruce so I sauntered to his blanket, stopping right in front of him. I must have stood there a full minute but he just ignored me and continued to practice his song, his head bent as he watched the placement of his fingers. My hopes were thoroughly dashed.

Over the years, our paths crossed crazily in numerous anyonomous ways known only to me, through mutual friends in the music industry and then some....

I was pleased and surprised to see the picture of Bruce hanging on the wall of the food bank. It feels as if my younger self has come full circle and Mike, now 14, can identify with him also. Lord knows he needs his own Bruce Springsteen story since he's heard me tell mine often enough! Bruuuuuuuucce!

Happy St. Patty's Day to you!

It took me a few years to understand that Bruce was preparing himself for the world stage, playing to an audience as vast as all the oceans.