The Boss. My Chances. My Hope (still)!

This blog post is not about women. It is not about sports. It does not include anything female-focused business either. It is about a desire from 1978 that was supposed to finally be achieved tonight.

You see, I’ve wanted to see Bruce Springsteen perform live since I was in 8th grade living in the small city of Rome, New York when Springsteen hit the scene with his popular album Darkness on the Edge of Town. My best friend Geselle loved the band and her older brother (who had a driver’s license) was willing to take her and her friends to the big city of Syracuse, NY – a one-hour drive to see him perform at the War Memorial.

With a strict Italian mother, I was turned down to take them up on the offer thus leading to an almost lifetime of wanting to see him live. (BTW, Bruce’s Mother is also Italian!)

Two years ago, to try to bring tourists and residents back to the Big Apple after the Covid-19 pandemic, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a mega-concert in Central Park, featuring big-name acts including Bruce Springsteen. I immediately bought four tickets to see him and the likes of Andrea Bocelli Barry Manilow, Paul Simon, Jennifer Hudson, Journey, and many more acts.

This was finally going to be my chance to see “The Boss” but halfway through the amazing line-up a thunder and lightening storm rose up and ended the concert in the middle of Barry Manilow’s “Copa Cabana” with him not even noticing the urgent need to take cover. Bruce had not appeared yet, and my hopes slammed.

My daughter-in-law, a Syracuse University graduate, whose father Jerry Brenner, helped to promote some of Bruce’s early albums, bought me Born in the USA to listen to. She has a note from Bruce to her father saying, “To the real Boss, thank you!”

So, this was finally my chance to see Bruce in my city – now which is Syracuse, NY (who would have guessed back in 1978), to see him play. Tonight was going to be the night – 9/7/23 – until the concert got canceled at midnight due to a medical issue Bruce is contending with. There I was feeling like I was living my own darkness on the edge of town in real life.

As fans wait for his improvement and rescheduling of the Syracuse concert, I’m a bit skeptical the new date will fall on a date I have open. I’m not a pessimist by any sense of the word, but after 44 years (and that is Syracuse’s lucky number) of waiting, I can only guess the date he chooses doesn’t work.

But I am a tenacious woman so I’ll bide my time until the chance comes to see him in Syracuse and tell my mother thanks for making me wait this long!