I Grew Up Brown County

My first concert!

Mom works at the Post Office. Sometimes, after school or on a Saturday, we get to go hang out “behind the scenes.” There is a sing-a-long tape of classic Christmas songs, with clay-mation Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, and The Island of Misfit Toys. We watch it over and over and over. Sometimes, there are treats at the table in the lunch area. Usually not, though.

I get to put bulk mail into the post office boxes from the inside, and sometimes a key turns from the outside and I hide from view. I don’t want to spoil it if the mail-seeker thinks all the letters get in there by magic.

There are rubber bands everywhere. And little plastic sleeves for your thumb to help you snag one piece of mail at a time, allowing you to keep sorting mail, even if your hands are dry.

Papaw also works at the Post Office. He’s a mailman. He gets there really, really early, sorts stuff for his route, loads up his car, and heads out on the road. He’s usually back to the post office by 2:00. And home by 3:30.

I love being “behind the scenes.” Seeing the different slots for “Local” or “Out of State” mail sorted, packages piled high. When Mom works the front counter, people buy stamps or send letters or come to pick up a package and she sends me back to the stacks to find it.

One day, Mom comes home from the Post Office and tells me she has a surprise. The Backstreet Boys are playing a concert in Indianapolis and one of the ladies from town came in to drop off a package and offered us her tickets to the show! Aah!

The Backstreet Boys are a big deal. Hearing “I Want It That Way” is the first time I ask Mom to keep it on that radio station in the car. I am in love with Brian. I know that he’s shorter than me. And from Kentucky. But I love him. I just know I’ll get to meet him at the concert!

We get to the concert a little late, which is the usual when you travel somewhere with Mom as the pilot. We sit next to tiny children who are way too tired to be surrounded by screaming adolescent girls. I can just make out the band members on stage, but I can see their faces on the huge screen facing our high, high balcony seats.

None of it matters. For one moment, Brian flies through the air in a harness; he looks right at me through that screen.

It is magical.