At some point the guy who was simply providing us with a journey picked up various other hitchhiker, a keen AWOL soldier who was simply plus for the his solution to the brand new Newport festival.
The three of us were dropped out-of into mainland stop of your own link over Narragansett Bay. It absolutely was a toll link and there were cops resting doing the brand new toll mall it wasn’t a soft place to hitchhike. It was the middle of the night, the new sky is overcast, the air try chill and you may quite simple blowing solid sent my very first true breaths from sodium air. We settled off truth be told there and soldier taken out a lbs mutual. The guy said he had been rescuing it for it moment. We smoked you to combined on program frozen above the scarcely noticeable choppy waters out-of Narragansett Bay to the rumble of one’s tourist over. This was my very first find which have sodium liquids and Bay looked enormous. Properly stoned, i mounted backup into link facial skin. The newest soldier released their flash and you will flagged us off an effective drive such as for instance however planned it beforehand.
We moved out up to we were in the center of the brand new connection above the dark seas there we located a staircase one went down so you’re able to a platform under the link skin
The guys exactly who picked us up was naval officers even so they didn’t seem to care Link decisiva about everything we was indeed performing from the center of the connection very late into the evening. The new AWOL soldier was created over a small scared from the the difficulty nevertheless the naval officials only don’t have a look very curious throughout the one thing. They fell us within a left behind strip shopping mall close to the event factor during the early early morning. Indeed there i parted implies on AWOL soldier, wishing each other luck. He previously arranged accommodations and you may informed all of us one to we can crash to your sidewalk at the fresh strip shopping center with no difficulties. Then, assure each other we could possibly come upon both again while in the the category of your festival, i ran our very own separate means. We never ever watched him once again, but sharing that joint that have him in the center of the latest connection over Narragansett Bay stays perhaps one of the most joyous higher factors, as they say, associated with the whole trip. Dickie and i went within the area of the strip shopping center, found a suitably out-of-the-means place and you may bedded off for what stayed of nights, our earliest during the Newport.
There can be currently hobby around us all while we mounted away from our sleep bags; what seemed an out-of-the-means place regarding the night time dark turned a middle from passion in the morning white
We woke one first day in the Newport a little achy off resting into cement, damp into the day dew, and you can smelling faintly off sodium. Citizens were event, speaking, awaiting the stores to open. It actually was starting to rating fairly crowded. We ignore how we dealt with visiting the bathroom that morning, but i performed in some way. And when i got all of our hardware packed-up once again i had things cheap to eat having morning meal and you may become panhandling with very all the best. We had some cash however, primarily exactly what most of us performed was share eating, give us container out-of juice, smoking cigarettes (I was a cigarette smoker then), wine, and you can bones. We had been quite happy with our selves.
Immediately following our early morning panhandling and having compensated in i scoped away the newest event basis, Festival Community, walking in the hill about it when deciding to take a research rates then ran shopping for the package place of work to order our tickets on Event. As i take a look at advertising during the Cleveland they said that brand new evening series was basically four bucks additionally the day concerts was indeed four bucks. Very Dickie and i for each got 9 cash arranged in order to purchase standard entryway on whole festival. During the retrospect it was incredibly naive, however, at that time they appeared to make sense so you can united states. Four bucks and you can five dollars was reasonable quantities of cash in 1971. As soon as we have got to the container place of work we had been shocked so you’re able to discover it actually was four cash standard admission for every of the 3 night shows, and Sunday mid-day show, also it was four bucks for each of the other a couple afternoon programs – this is all in all, $33 apiece. Merely acquiring one people on entire event manage pricing more than all of the penny both of us got developed. We had been looking at loads of panhandling. Finally i chose to score seven dollar kepted chairs towards Sunday evening performance which had been an effective salute into blues having Ray Charles, B.B. King, the new Allman Brothers and you will a lot of other great acts. I figured that individuals you may just watch the remainder event on mountain behind the newest event basis. One mountain, section of Miantonomi Park (I’d far later on find out the label, regardless if I did not understand it at the time), designed a natural amphitheater from which we could see the stage and you will, i expected, be able to hear well enough.