I’m not sure when I began collecting ticket stubs, a hobby that is a recent victim of the digital era. Tickets are now distributed electronically, so it’s rare these days to get an actual one. I have a collector’s box mounted on the wall with a glass front that I drop such mementos into, a container in the master closet with movie tickets, and notebooks full of sports memories. A few are framed in my man cave. None of them are likely valuable to anyone else but me since they date back only to the 1980’s. I wish that I’d kept the stubs for the 1970s when I went to the majority of my concerts. I simply wasn’t sentimental at that time in my life. 

I feel confident that I saw The Association live back in the early 70’s but I don’t have a ticket stub, or a date listed on my Concert Log that has grown to nearly 300 bands. I was thinking that they played for Homecoming at Albion College but the memory is faint. Their Greatest Hits album is part of my music playlist that keeps me entertained while running in the morning. These past few days, I’ve been reminded of their song, “Windy,” with gusts here in Florida expected to reach 50 mph sometime this weekend. I’ve cleared out the potential projectiles from our lanai in anticipation:

Windy 

‘Who’s peekin’ out from under a stairway
Callin’ a name that’s lighter than air?
Who’s bendin’ down to give me a rainbow?
Everyone knows it’s Windy

Who’s trippin’ down the streets of the city
Smilin’ at everybody she sees?
Who’s reachin’ out to capture a moment?
Everyone knows it’s Windy

And Windy has stormy eyes
That flash at the sound of lies
And Windy has wings to fly
Above the clouds (above the clouds)
Above the clouds (above the clouds)

And Windy has stormy eyes
That flash at the sound of lies
And Windy has wings to fly
Above the clouds (above the clouds)
Above the clouds (above the clouds)

Who’s trippin’ down the streets of the city
Smilin’ at everybody she sees?
Who’s reachin’ out to capture a moment?
Everyone knows it’s Windy

Who’s trippin’ down the streets of the city
Smilin’ at everybody she sees?
Who’s reachin’ out to capture a moment?
Everyone knows it’s Windy

Who’s trippin’ down the streets of the city
Smilin’ at everybody she sees?
Who’s reachin’ out to capture a moment?
Everyone knows it’s Windy

Who’s trippin’ down the streets of the city
Smilin’ at everybody she sees?
Who’s reachin’ out to capture a moment?
Everyone knows it’s Windy

Who’s trippin’ down the streets of the city
Smilin’ at everybody she sees?
Who’s reachin’ out to capture a moment?
Everyone knows it’s Windy’

 
Songwriter: Ruthann Friedman.
 

The word “trippin” is a good indication that this song was written in the mid-1960’s. We rarely use that term anymore, as this particular song was categorized as Psychedelic Pop.” “Windy” rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1967. It followed the popularity of their #4 hit “Cherish” in 1966. I was in high school in Elkhart, Indiana at that time, more worried about tornados than Florida hurricanes. Although our weekend gusts will hardly compare to Ian, certainly everyone knows it’s windy.