Jan. 30, 2022, column from the Amarillo Globe-News

Cruise concertgoers and performers still rocking it

By Mike Haynes

The ladysitting at a small table reminded me of some in a senior citizens’ Sunday school class at our church. Short hair, white and neatly styled, glasses, maybe in her mid- to late-70s. I normally see women like that at church or in the grocery store.

But this woman’s head was bobbing back and forth, sometimes side to side, in a 

rhythm to some upbeat music by JR and the Stingrays. And other men and women, many who looked her age or older, were in front of the stage, dancing. Several of them obviously were experienced jitter-buggers, with women twirling under the raised hands of men and feet maneuvering like slalom skiers.On this first night on a Caribbean cruise, most of them wore white T-shirts that said, “29th Annual Concerts at Sea 2022,” and they were there for performances by bands from the 1960s as well as bopping to the Stingrays house band and catching up with friends who had enjoyed the trip with them in the past.

I’m getting up there in years myself, but some of these joyful people from all over the USA were closer to my dad’s age. And I’m sure some of them did sit in church pews the Sunday after they returned home. But Kathy and I, lovers of classic rock music, always marvel that so many of the people at the concerts we attend have gray hair, hearing aids and sometimes walk with canes.

Florence LaRue, almost 78 and an original member of the Fifth Dimension, one of the headliner cruise bands, used a cane when shopping at the port of Roatan, Honduras. But on stage, she danced and swayed with the younger members of the group and sang “Up, Up and Away” like she did 55 years ago. Apparently her off-stage cane is temporary; she had hip and knee replacement surgery not long ago.

During the show, LaRue was open about her age. She said people ask her how she keeps going at an entertainer’s pace. Her answer? “It’s all God.”

Gary Puckett, of Union Gap fame, is 79 and still booms out his hits such as “Woman, Woman,” with a vibrato voice. He and the other headliners on the cruise – Paul Revere’s Raiders, the Buckinghams, Peter Rivera of Rare Earth and Brian Hyland – as well as singer Roy Michaels – put on rockin’ shows that pleased their audience as fully as when all were in their teens and 20s.

Puckett pleasantly surprised some of us when he volunteered the information that he is a Christian “born-againer.”

Hyland was 16 in 1960 when he recorded “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini." Two years later, his “Sealed with a Kiss” was another hit. You wouldn’t know he’s 78 from his energetic guitar riffs or his rendition of another success, “The Joker Went Wild.” And we found out the New Yorker is as friendly as a West Texan behind his ever-present sunglasses.

Granted, the purpose of a cruise is to have fun. But these Concerts at Sea people, mostly in their 50s to 80s, struck me as knowing better than most of us how to do that. With their masks on, senior couples did the twist, jitter-bugged to “Come On, Let’s Go” and snuggled to “In the Still of the Night.”

Rivera sang “I Just Want To Celebrate” in the ’60s and ’70s for Rare Earth. He told the cruising concertgoers that Grand Funk Railroad musician Mark Farner advised him that no matter your age, “keep working for another No. 1 hit.”

Off the ship, Kathy and I observed a man from Michigan, about to turn 90, who probably would agree. He and his daughter, maybe my age, were on a “swim with the dolphins” excursion at Cozumel. Even with one weak leg, he did it. This tall, thin man swam out 30 yards from a platform wearing a life jacket. A dolphin appeared under him, and he held onto the marine mammal’s fins while it sped him back to the platform. He finished with a big smile.

The Bible tells us a lot about work and responsibility. There’s a time to plant and a time to build, says Ecclesiastes. But it also says this:

“So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.”

The older people we saw on that cruise brought their youth with them. As Paul Revere’s Raiders sang, they’re still getting their “Kicks.” And that’s a “Good Thing.”