Shut Up And Wrap 'em.
Like most people my first rock & roll concert would become a lifetime memory. The first rock concert I attended was on Monday July 4th, 1977. I was sixteen years old and not only did I get to watch the show, but I would also be working the show.
I was a vendor at Exhibition Stadium back in 1977.
I had been hired earlier that year back in April primarily to work the inaugural season of the Toronto Blue Jays. During that first season there would be close to ninety Jays and Argo games that I could potentially work. On average I would earn anywhere between $20 and $40 per game in commissions and tips depending on the crowd size.
The crowd size for many of those games would depend on the weather conditions. With Exhibition Stadium located on the shores of Lake Ontario; the weather would play havoc with many scheduled games. For the most part, I would not be working those games. Afterall, it would take me a good six hours by the time I left my apartment, took the bus to the CNE grounds and worked the game, then got back home. I might be lucky if I made ten bucks out of which I would have to pay for my bus fare.
Being a vendor there were no guarantees, you showed up and just hustled your ass off. Most of the times it paid off, but other times it would just be a complete waste of time.
I learned pretty early on that the big money games were the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Those teams always drew the biggest crowds meaning larger commissions and tips for a vendor. There was no doubt; I would always be working those games.
Along with the Jays and Argos games there were also many concerts. Most of those would be held at the Grandstand during the upcoming Canadian National Exhibition, a two week end of summer ritual in Toronto. I would also be working for most of those shows.
All in all I could potentially work well over a hundred events if I was really ambitious. However, I never was really that overly ambitious.
Fleetwood Mac was probably the biggest band in the universe back in 1977. Their newly released album Rumours dominated the charts hitting #1 on the Billboard 200 for 31 consecutive weeks. That summer Fleetwood Mac was dominating the airwaves with the sultry Stevie Nicks singing the hit song Dreams. The song seemed to be on the radio all the time. To this day I personally think the Rumours album is one of the best albums ever recorded. There is no doubt it would be on my top five all-time list.
The Rumours tour would be the band's first world tour. It would see Fleetwood Mac visiting Toronto on July 4th, their first and only visit to the Toronto area that summer. Hands down it was easily going to be the biggest concert of the year if not all time in Toronto. The concert was to start at 7 pm and there would be two warmup bands. Kenny Loggins who was riding the coattails of his first album and Boz Scaggs who was in the prime of his career. Fleetwood Mac would be hitting the stage just after 9 pm.
Unlike most of today's outdoor concerts, the concert was not a rain or shine show. If the weather was inclement and the show needed to be rescheduled it would be moved to the following day on the Tuesday. The crowd was expected to be the largest crowd ever to attend a rock concert in Toronto. So much so that my employer Versa Foods requested as many of us vendors come into work early on that day. They would be needing extra help in preparing all the concessions for the big show.
With a record crowd expected, concession sales would also be more than likely setting a record on that day.
I made up my mind that if the weather was good in the morning then I would help out. I could always use some extra cash and everyone who showed up would be paid just over the minimum wage. If I recall it was a little less than three bucks an hour.
It was a beautiful sunny morning when I left my apartment at 9 am. I arrived at the stadium just after 10 am where I was about to witness something I had never seen before. It would be on my walk to gate 10 which was the employee entrance located on the south side of the stadium. I literally had to tiptoe around what seemed like hundreds of people who were just sitting and lying around all over the place.
Many had camped out overnight at the main gate so as to be the first into the stadium when the gates opened at 5 pm. Once the gates opened they would be sprinting to the front of the stage. Their objective would be to simply lay claim to the best available spot by sitting on a blanket for a couple hours before the show even started. There was no reserved seating on the field and the complete field was all general admission.
The smell of weed permeated the whole area as I excused myself trying not to step on anyone. Many were already completely stoned as I tried to carefully maneuver my way around them. There was a multitude of discarded liquor bottles strewn everywhere on the pavement and many bulging wineskins were clearly visible. I remember seeing pictures of Woodstock and what I was seeing on that morning reminded me exactly of those images without the mud.
There were so many people there so early in the morning and I could only imagine the state of some of them by showtime. It promised to be a very memorable evening for sure.
When I arrived, I was assigned to help out in the preparation of hot dogs. It was actually pretty simple, I would take a hot dog from the box and put it in a bun. I would then take the bun and hot dog and put it in a foil wrapper. The hot dogs were then cooked in the kitchen inside large specialty ovens and when finished it was as if the hot dog had been cooked in a steamer.
They were actually pretty good.
I was a vendor at Exhibition Stadium back in 1977.
I had been hired earlier that year back in April primarily to work the inaugural season of the Toronto Blue Jays. During that first season there would be close to ninety Jays and Argo games that I could potentially work. On average I would earn anywhere between $20 and $40 per game in commissions and tips depending on the crowd size.
The crowd size for many of those games would depend on the weather conditions. With Exhibition Stadium located on the shores of Lake Ontario; the weather would play havoc with many scheduled games. For the most part, I would not be working those games. Afterall, it would take me a good six hours by the time I left my apartment, took the bus to the CNE grounds and worked the game, then got back home. I might be lucky if I made ten bucks out of which I would have to pay for my bus fare.
Being a vendor there were no guarantees, you showed up and just hustled your ass off. Most of the times it paid off, but other times it would just be a complete waste of time.
I learned pretty early on that the big money games were the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Those teams always drew the biggest crowds meaning larger commissions and tips for a vendor. There was no doubt; I would always be working those games.
Along with the Jays and Argos games there were also many concerts. Most of those would be held at the Grandstand during the upcoming Canadian National Exhibition, a two week end of summer ritual in Toronto. I would also be working for most of those shows.
All in all I could potentially work well over a hundred events if I was really ambitious. However, I never was really that overly ambitious.
Fleetwood Mac was probably the biggest band in the universe back in 1977. Their newly released album Rumours dominated the charts hitting #1 on the Billboard 200 for 31 consecutive weeks. That summer Fleetwood Mac was dominating the airwaves with the sultry Stevie Nicks singing the hit song Dreams. The song seemed to be on the radio all the time. To this day I personally think the Rumours album is one of the best albums ever recorded. There is no doubt it would be on my top five all-time list.
The Rumours tour would be the band's first world tour. It would see Fleetwood Mac visiting Toronto on July 4th, their first and only visit to the Toronto area that summer. Hands down it was easily going to be the biggest concert of the year if not all time in Toronto. The concert was to start at 7 pm and there would be two warmup bands. Kenny Loggins who was riding the coattails of his first album and Boz Scaggs who was in the prime of his career. Fleetwood Mac would be hitting the stage just after 9 pm.
Unlike most of today's outdoor concerts, the concert was not a rain or shine show. If the weather was inclement and the show needed to be rescheduled it would be moved to the following day on the Tuesday. The crowd was expected to be the largest crowd ever to attend a rock concert in Toronto. So much so that my employer Versa Foods requested as many of us vendors come into work early on that day. They would be needing extra help in preparing all the concessions for the big show.
With a record crowd expected, concession sales would also be more than likely setting a record on that day.
I made up my mind that if the weather was good in the morning then I would help out. I could always use some extra cash and everyone who showed up would be paid just over the minimum wage. If I recall it was a little less than three bucks an hour.
It was a beautiful sunny morning when I left my apartment at 9 am. I arrived at the stadium just after 10 am where I was about to witness something I had never seen before. It would be on my walk to gate 10 which was the employee entrance located on the south side of the stadium. I literally had to tiptoe around what seemed like hundreds of people who were just sitting and lying around all over the place.
Many had camped out overnight at the main gate so as to be the first into the stadium when the gates opened at 5 pm. Once the gates opened they would be sprinting to the front of the stage. Their objective would be to simply lay claim to the best available spot by sitting on a blanket for a couple hours before the show even started. There was no reserved seating on the field and the complete field was all general admission.
The smell of weed permeated the whole area as I excused myself trying not to step on anyone. Many were already completely stoned as I tried to carefully maneuver my way around them. There was a multitude of discarded liquor bottles strewn everywhere on the pavement and many bulging wineskins were clearly visible. I remember seeing pictures of Woodstock and what I was seeing on that morning reminded me exactly of those images without the mud.
There were so many people there so early in the morning and I could only imagine the state of some of them by showtime. It promised to be a very memorable evening for sure.
When I arrived, I was assigned to help out in the preparation of hot dogs. It was actually pretty simple, I would take a hot dog from the box and put it in a bun. I would then take the bun and hot dog and put it in a foil wrapper. The hot dogs were then cooked in the kitchen inside large specialty ovens and when finished it was as if the hot dog had been cooked in a steamer.
They were actually pretty good.
They would then be sold by us vendors in the stands out of big Coleman coolers used to keep them warm.
That was the gist of it anyway.
I had never seen so many boxes of hot dogs before in my life. There were literally skids of Shopsy’s hot dogs brought out with a fork lift to the tables where we were waiting to wrap them. What the hell, were they expecting everyone in the city to attend the show? I thought we would never be able to wrap them all.
The sequence would go as follows. As hot dogs were wrapped, they were loaded onto trays then taken to the kitchen and stored in walk in coolers. The first hot dogs wrapped would be the first hot dogs to be cooked and sold. Everything was humming along pretty smoothly until we got to the last few boxes. Those hot dogs would be the last to be cooked and sold, but those hot dogs looked different.
They had what looked like a green mold on them. I was by no means a hot dog expert, but I knew those dogs were not fit for human consumption. I remember a few people hollering out to the supervisor that the hot dogs were moldy and shouldn’t be wrapped.
The supervisor walked over to the tables with his ever present Walkie Talkie in his hand.
“Shut up and wrap ‘em. It’s going to be dark by the time we sell them and no one will be able to see.” He said as he walked away.
All the hot dogs eventually got wrapped that afternoon, including the moldy ones.
By the time we were finished there was still about an hour or so before the gates opened and we could start selling. The crowd at the main gate had more than doubled since my walk amongst the sea of humanity that morning. July 4th was going to be a very long, memorable day and also a big money day for me. There was no doubt I would be earning well over a hundred bucks on that day.
I would be selling peanuts that evening for the show.
Hot dogs and peanuts were the most popular concessions by far for a vendor. A fifty bag box of peanuts meant less time in the kitchen and more time in the stands selling. There were fifty potential sales in a box of peanuts; a tray of popcorn had a dozen. The popcorn vendor, even if he grabbed two trays still had twice as many trips to the kitchen than a peanut vendor. I remember Coke sales were extremely brisk and I witnessed dozens of wineskin contents poured into the icy cold beverage.
There were so many fights on the field that evening and for the most part they were all stoners fighting over their coveted blanket space. Some of the stoners were falling over because they were so stoned and knocking over other stoners booze laced Cokes. Watching stoners fight, or should I say try to fight added a dose of comedy to the evening. They might as well have all been fighting blindfolded.
That was the gist of it anyway.
I had never seen so many boxes of hot dogs before in my life. There were literally skids of Shopsy’s hot dogs brought out with a fork lift to the tables where we were waiting to wrap them. What the hell, were they expecting everyone in the city to attend the show? I thought we would never be able to wrap them all.
The sequence would go as follows. As hot dogs were wrapped, they were loaded onto trays then taken to the kitchen and stored in walk in coolers. The first hot dogs wrapped would be the first hot dogs to be cooked and sold. Everything was humming along pretty smoothly until we got to the last few boxes. Those hot dogs would be the last to be cooked and sold, but those hot dogs looked different.
They had what looked like a green mold on them. I was by no means a hot dog expert, but I knew those dogs were not fit for human consumption. I remember a few people hollering out to the supervisor that the hot dogs were moldy and shouldn’t be wrapped.
The supervisor walked over to the tables with his ever present Walkie Talkie in his hand.
“Shut up and wrap ‘em. It’s going to be dark by the time we sell them and no one will be able to see.” He said as he walked away.
All the hot dogs eventually got wrapped that afternoon, including the moldy ones.
By the time we were finished there was still about an hour or so before the gates opened and we could start selling. The crowd at the main gate had more than doubled since my walk amongst the sea of humanity that morning. July 4th was going to be a very long, memorable day and also a big money day for me. There was no doubt I would be earning well over a hundred bucks on that day.
I would be selling peanuts that evening for the show.
Hot dogs and peanuts were the most popular concessions by far for a vendor. A fifty bag box of peanuts meant less time in the kitchen and more time in the stands selling. There were fifty potential sales in a box of peanuts; a tray of popcorn had a dozen. The popcorn vendor, even if he grabbed two trays still had twice as many trips to the kitchen than a peanut vendor. I remember Coke sales were extremely brisk and I witnessed dozens of wineskin contents poured into the icy cold beverage.
There were so many fights on the field that evening and for the most part they were all stoners fighting over their coveted blanket space. Some of the stoners were falling over because they were so stoned and knocking over other stoners booze laced Cokes. Watching stoners fight, or should I say try to fight added a dose of comedy to the evening. They might as well have all been fighting blindfolded.
It was hilarious to watch.
One stoner right in front of the stage grabbed my box of peanuts. He took a bag out for himself and he then threw all the remaining bags all over the field. It was free peanuts for all the stoners up front. I was lucky; I never had to pay for them which was the usual policy for us vendors. A vendor always had to return with the complete selling value he left the kitchen with or he would have to make up the difference.
No exceptions.
Realizing that I could not retrieve my peanuts my supervisor let it slide and gave me a new box to sell. I stayed away from the front of the stage and that one particular stoner. I highly doubted that I would be getting a second free box of peanuts.
Once Fleetwood Mac took to the stage it was too dark to sell on the field. I was too afraid of stepping or falling on a stoner and getting into a fight. I cashed in my commission tickets and went back out onto the field to watch the concert up close. It truly was an amazing night and I will never forget my first rock & roll concert.
The smell of weed was so dominant that night on the field and I felt like I was the only one there who never took a toke on a joint. I was so dog tired by the time I got home. My usual one hour trip took well over two hours that night as the lineups for busses was very long.
A record of close to 70,000 people attended the show. I later read that many of the Toronto fire code laws were broken on that night as the crowd had exceeded by thousands the capacity of the venue.
I would work many more rock concerts during that first summer. I saw many great bands, but nothing equaled my first rock concert and seeing Fleetwood Mac on that summer evening back in July of ’77.
And after that night, I have never nor will I ever eat a hot dog in the dark.
One stoner right in front of the stage grabbed my box of peanuts. He took a bag out for himself and he then threw all the remaining bags all over the field. It was free peanuts for all the stoners up front. I was lucky; I never had to pay for them which was the usual policy for us vendors. A vendor always had to return with the complete selling value he left the kitchen with or he would have to make up the difference.
No exceptions.
Realizing that I could not retrieve my peanuts my supervisor let it slide and gave me a new box to sell. I stayed away from the front of the stage and that one particular stoner. I highly doubted that I would be getting a second free box of peanuts.
Once Fleetwood Mac took to the stage it was too dark to sell on the field. I was too afraid of stepping or falling on a stoner and getting into a fight. I cashed in my commission tickets and went back out onto the field to watch the concert up close. It truly was an amazing night and I will never forget my first rock & roll concert.
The smell of weed was so dominant that night on the field and I felt like I was the only one there who never took a toke on a joint. I was so dog tired by the time I got home. My usual one hour trip took well over two hours that night as the lineups for busses was very long.
A record of close to 70,000 people attended the show. I later read that many of the Toronto fire code laws were broken on that night as the crowd had exceeded by thousands the capacity of the venue.
I would work many more rock concerts during that first summer. I saw many great bands, but nothing equaled my first rock concert and seeing Fleetwood Mac on that summer evening back in July of ’77.
And after that night, I have never nor will I ever eat a hot dog in the dark.
