Oh is That for Me? a Purple Sock. .

The Rich field Coliseum was, in my opinion, the very best indoor auditorium Ohio had. It could seat 20,000 spectators for as little as $30.oo back then and we as a family went often, to the circus, the ice shows and even later on some rock and roll concerts. The acoustics in this magnanimous concrete structure were fantastic and this was one of the very first ‘rock and roll’ shows my mother took me and my kid sister also.

The Osmond Family featuring Donny and Marie were touring the states and ours was the 16 they visited in a schedule of maybe 100 cities across the two coasts. It was a mild day in early Autumn and unlike my sister who was not much of a fan, I loved Donny and I tolerated Marie. She was still so young and not really refined in her public performances and me well I was merely twelve and totally in ga-ga over the purple-sock-wearing dark haired teenager who rocked up on stage like an old pro.

His brothers–namely Alan, Merle, Jay, Wayne and Jimmy (Virl and Tommy are tone deaf) were talented no doubt and kept me at the edge of my seat with songs like “Down by The Lazy River” and “He Ain’t Heavy, He‘s My Brother“ one an original the latter a cover tune. Yet, it was all Donny singing “Puppy Love” that had me jumping to my feet and squealing just like a young schoolgirl should and would. He sang great and as far as I was concerned, much to my amazement other girls fantasy as well, he was singing right at me. If I were super close I probably would have caught him blushing a little while capturing all the young girl’s eyes who were looking right at him probably thinking the same thing I was. Nothing to do with dogs or a fascination with the man’s best friend motto; nope this was about that tender age when infatuation, just a bit shy of love, was experienced as goose-bumps or giggles when a cute boy came into view. It was nostalgic, funny, endearing and of course moving.

The best part was that after his song, Marie went into Paper Roses and Donny slid off the stage into the pit to cool off. I had slipped down from my row of seats and meandered towards where he was sitting. I was just close enough where guards might have intervened but I only looked. As I am looking Donny says Hi and I went ‘uhh”, can I have a momento from this concert?”. “Sure little pretty lady” and he reached into a paper bag and pulled out one of about 100 single purple socks and handed it to me saying, ‘and they called it puppy love’ . . . I will never forget that nor how the rest of my life took on a gleaming for the innocence of puppy love again and again and again.