Was Penny a rebound girlfriend? If she was, I wasn’t conscious of it at the time. With almost 30 years of hindsight, I can’t see how she couldn’t have been. The timing for one thing. I had to be searching for somebody to fill that gaping hole in my life. To patch that wound. It was Penny.
We had a Comm class together. That’s how we met. It was the kind of class that involved a lot of public speaking and I seemed to be cut out for that. I recently found a letter from her that spoke of how nervous she was to get up in front of the class but I seemed to have no trouble getting up there and getting everybody laughing.
REO Speedwagon had a new album out and Penny and I both liked it. As you know, I had accumulated a few REO Speedwagon albums during the Academy Days. I can’t tell you why I skipped their follow up to Hi-Infidelity because I really don’t know. I just never seemed to be able to get excited about Good Trouble. Even now, Good Trouble is just this whole between Hi-Infidelity and Wheels Are Turnin’.
It seemed that with this new record, REO Speedwagon was able to recapture some of what they had. More likely, it was probably my involvement with a woman that gave power to REO Speedwagon.
On November 23rd, REO Speedwagon came to the coliseum. I took Penny to see them. Survivor and Zebra were the supporting acts. We had to miss Zebra because we had to go to her brother Jeff’s rehearsal dinner. He was getting married. Penny was a bridesmaid, I was her date. It was too bad that we were late. I would eventually get into Zebra and we both like their latest song Bears.
Like Lisa, Penny was a gymnast. She was maybe 5 feet tall and weighed probably 80 pounds. I only mention this because at the concert, she and I got right up front for REO and I had her up on my shoulders for the entire show. It was no trouble. She would have been crushed down there otherwise.
One Lonely Night
Thru The Window
Live Every Moment
Can’t Fight This Feeling Although I would not even meet the woman who would become my wife for another year, this song reminds me of her. We’ll talk about it again in 1987.