John McLoone

I am retiring.

Not officially, but I think it’s time to “shut down” certain parts of my life.

Like if there’s a crowd, I’m retired from being in it.

I used to attend a lot of college and pro sports events. Not anymore. I’m retired.

I’m guessing my last hoorah was a baseball game a couple years ago. My wife and I have birthdays a day apart. One daughter killed two birds with one stone and got us tickets for a game.

It was a good time. We got tickets for the game and got to buy lunch, beverages and snacks at the game and dinner afterwards, on top of the price of a hotel. It was a lot of fun though. It was a good one to go out on.

In my younger years, I attended a lot of concerts. My first one was Charlie Daniels at the Wisconsin State Fair in 1980. My very last one was Bruce Springsteen at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on March 5, 2023. I saw countless shows over the years, notably I saw The Who on their “final” tour twice, three decades apart. Best concert: It’s a tie between Tom Petty in 1983 and a 4-1/2 hour Springsteen show in 1984. Worst concert: That’s not even close. Bob Dylan. It was an outdoor venue. He came on right on time, which was nice. He mumbled for about 45 minutes and left the stage. It was still light out. To top it off, the Grateful Dead were playing that same amphitheater the next three nights, so the roads in and out were clogged with Deadheads doing what Deadheads did.
Back to my final hoorah last year. My younger brother lives in Florida. We had attended several Springsteen concerts together in the past. It was my turn to buy. He was going to fly up for the show. That didn’t happen. I dragged a daughter to her second Springsteen concert with me.

It was a good one to go out on. The show was great, but as we were walking in, it was starting to snow. It was only going to get worse. It was at that time that I came to the realization that I’m too old for this kind of stuff. I had a 1-1/2 hour drive home. We snuck out a little early to beat the traffic and walked into a Winter Wonderland that stretched that journey to four hours.

I had a good run. I went to every Green Bay Packer game for several seasons. We made countless round trips to Milwaukee for Marquette basketball games for years. Four hours there, one hour lunch, two hour game, four hour drive home.

And now, my recliner is calling. These big flat screen TVs make it difficult to want to experience it in person. Plus, if I want to have a beverage, it’s not going to cost $14. And no waiting in in line at the concession stand. I just snap my fingers, and my wife brings it to me.

We’re still actually working on that part of my retirement plan.