And the winner is: Jim Pomeranz (finally!)

Until yesterday, when I received an email from Hal Goodtree at the website CaryCitizen, I can’t remember the last time, recently anyway, I won anything other than maybe a hole in a golf match which happens only every now and then. Oh, I might have won $3 on a $5 lottery ticket, but is that winning? I remember going to Las Vegas once and returning to the question, “Did you win?” My answer was, “Yes, I won $50, but I spent $100 doing it.” The sign of a real winner!

Many summers ago, sometime in the late 1970s, I won a contest offered by an OD radio station. (To the unknowing, OD is short for Ocean Drive SC, the home of Carolina Beach Music, that shagging kind of music.) To win the contest, not only did you have to know the answer to the question but you had to go to the radio station and arrive first with the correct answer. I was sitting on the beach, listing to beach music, drinking a favorite beverage and basically not caring about anything, much less a radio contest, but I knew the answer and sort of knew the radio station location. I walked about 10 blocks, got there first, answered the questions correctly and won one ticket—yes, just one, not two—to a Jimmy Buffett performance later in the summer at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.

While on the subject, I'll finish the Buffett story before I get on with winning-something yesterday. I’ve seen Buffett perform many times in my life, dating back to the 1970s when he was starting his ascent: at the Frog & Nightgown in Raleigh’s Cameron Village Subway where he played his acoustic guitar and sang as he sat on a stool in front of maybe 50 people; in the Pier, a larger (150 people) nightclub across the hall from the F&G, with his Coral Reefer Band; in 800-seat Stewart Theatre in the University Student Center on the NC State campus; in Reynolds Coliseum on the State campus; in the (name of the year) Amphitheatre in Raleigh; and in a driving rain on July 4th in Carter-Finley Stadium.

The best Buffett concert was with my winning-ticket freebie in Myrtle Beach. It had a 7:00 p.m. starting time, and, right on cue, Buffett walked onto stage with that acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder. To everyone’s surprise, he was unaccompanied as he took a seat on a lone stool on the front edge of the stage. For the next 150 minutes without pause or interruption, Buffett was vintage Buffett. The audience listened and took part but didn’t drown out the crooning. On a drugless and alcohol-less high, I left, or at least started to leave, as Buffett ducked behind the curtain and a local act started to set up. By no means was Buffett the warm-up for the next group, a name I had already forgotten.

As I was exiting, several people enthused with the next group of aspiring artists were pleading for those leaving to stay. I listened to the convincing words, even took a 45 rpm record being handed out and agreed to listen to it later. At the last moment, just before walking into the summer air, I turn around and went back inside for a song or two. When I left, a persuader asked for my opinion. “Not exactly my style of music but I’m sure they’ll do okay. Good beat.” As it turns out, that group was Alabama, just getting its start along the South’s Atlantic Coast. I haven’t a clue where that 45 rpm record is today. Not a bad winning ticket, huh.

So, yesterday, I received an email from Goodtree, CaryCitizen editor and publisher of CaryCitizen, a really good site for lots of good stuff happening in Cary. Better than any other website address for lots of good stuff happening in Cary. If you're interested in Cary, bookmark the site. Anyway, Hal was writing to inform me I had won two tickets for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Benefit Show, May 1 at Koka Booth Amphitheatre. My name was selected out of a hat from entrants in a trivia contest who answered correctly five questions. Turns out seven entries gave the correct answers and my name was drawn. I was pleased with my fortune and surprised of the few correct entries.

With the internet at hand—available to nearly everyone—and a little knowledge of the subjects, and with most of the answers on the Koka Booth Amphitheatre website, I took a shot.

Question 1: Finish this line: “Mama told me, yes she told me….”

My answer: “Mother (not Mama) told me, yes, she told me I’d meet girls like you” (from Cheap Trick’s Surrender)

Question 2: Who played acoustic guitar behind Jimi Hendrix on “All Along the Watchtower?”

My answer: Dave Mason

Question 3: What band covered “Hippy Hippy Shake” for the movie “Cocktail?”
My answer: The Georgia Satellites

Question 4: This drummer was a founding member of The Plastic Ono Band
My answer: Alan White

Question 5: The Candymen and the Classics IV gave birth to this group in 1970
My answer: Atlanta Rhythm Section

When I submitted the answers to CaryCitizen, I knew each was correct (maybe I should stick to contests about music), but there’s something special about receiving an email or a telephone call or a letter or being told in person that you have just won…anything. Especially another story to tell my grandchildren.
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To see the story about my name being drawn (and for the names of those so cheerful people in the photo on this page), go to: http://www.carycitizen.com/2010/04/19/and-the-winner-is-jim-pomeranz/

To read more about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Benefit Show, click this link: http://www.carycitizen.com/2010/04/15/rock-hall-benefit-in-cary-could-be-triangles-signature-event/

To read a story I wrote about the new Bojangles coming to Cary for my website and then publsihed by CaryCitizen, go to: http://www.carycitizen.com/2010/01/23/caryites-rejoice-bojangles-is-coming-to-town/

And, to enjoy CaryCitizen, go to http://www.carycitizen.com/. It’s all good. Thanks, Hal!