25th anniversary of Live Aid – and one other Big Event :-)

There were more than a few posts yesterday around the internet to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Live Aid concerts. And yet, I associate Live Aid with July 14th for a very good reason I will outline in a moment. It was really bugging me why I am 100% certain I was watching this concert on the 14th and yet all the dates and logos say July 13th. Well, thank you Wikipedia:

“The concert began at 12:00 BST (7:00, EST) at Wembley Stadium in the United Kingdom. It continued at JFK Stadium in the United States, starting at 13:51 BST (8:51, EST). The UK’s Wembley performances ended at 22:00 BST (17:00 or 5:00 PM, EST). The JFK performances and whole concert in the US ended at 04:05 BST 14 July (23:05 or 11:05 PM, EST). (See the full schedule of the concert here). Thus, the concert continued for 16 hours, but since many artists’ performances were conducted simultaneously in Wembley and JFK, the total concert’s length was much longer.” (emphasis mine)

See that up there? We were watching this on MTV here in the states all day on the 14th. I remember with incredible clarity this particular moment:
Vodpod videos no longer available.

I know – you are wondering why these things are so clear in my my 25 years later yet I cannot remember your name from an hour ago 😉

You see – somewhere in the morning of the 14th – given the time zone situations probably while I was sitting on my sofa singing an clapping along to every single Queen song – I went into labor. Being my first, it was a gradual, slow process and I frankly wasn’t quite sure it was the real thing until a few hours into it. But what I do remember with crystal like clarity is that it was a Sunday, that his dad was passed out in the bedroom suffering through an abscessed tooth that would be fixed at the dentist the next day (or was scheduled to be anyway..lord knows I no longer remember how/when THAT was resolved! I was kinda busy), and that I was having a blast watching some fantastic live performances on MTV which helped to pass the time and also helped me time the contractions once I realized they were really real. I remember walking the dog we had at the time because I knew you should walk. I remember taking a shower because I knew it would be my last for awhile and the hot water would help me relax. I remember making sure I ate only bland foods like toast & crackers and that I made sure to drink a lot of water. I think I made it almost to the end of the live broadcast of the concert which is about right looking at the Wiki entry. 7pm PST was probably when I sounded the alarm that we needed to get moving. I know THAT for sure because I was only in the hospital for barely 3 hours when he was born. No time for drugs though I wanted them badly. At just 6lbs 10oz he literally came flying out 🙂

It’s an out of focus picture and my first successful attempt at scanning one of the old ones, but here’s the little guy on said sofa from which I watched Live Aid just as he was practicing lifting his head for the first time:

And almost 25 years later:

Had to post a funky photo – keeping it real  🙂

Yes, the first born is 25 today. And now that you know a little bit about the day he came into the world and what I was doing – are you getting why he is the Music Man?