Temps

  When I was a kid, my brother gave me an album for Christmas.  It was called "The Temptations Sing Smokey".  I loved that album.  It had their hit song "My Girl" on it.  Ever since then, The Temptations were one of my favorite groups.  I heard they were going to do a show at the SC State Fairgrounds, I knew I had to go.  They were on the bill with another great group called The Four Tops.

 There was excitement in the store that I worked in, because a fellow employee said she knew The Four Tops.  She was from New Jersey and had been to many of their shows.  She got a front row seat, and they acknowledged her during their show, so I guess she wasn't lying.  Even though I knew of The Four Tops, I wasn't familiar with much of their music, so I spent a little time preparing for the show by listening to some songs of theirs.

 The show was outdoors in the grandstand.  The stage had a cover over it which was a good thing, because it was pouring down rain throughout the show.  Umbrellas weren't allowed, but I was wearing my raincoat.  I found out that my raincoat didn't really work in hard and soaking rain.  It really didn't matter that I was taking a shower with my clothes on.  What mattered was seeing two superstar groups.  

 The Temptations had only one original member on stage that night.  That was okay.  They sang all of their hits anyway.  The Four Tops had at least three of the four original members.  Levi Stubbs was in bad shape health wise, so he sat on a stool the majority of the time.  He died not long after that show.  The Temps and the Tops came on the stage together to close out the show.  It was a great night, even though it was very soggy.  It was one of those shows where no one cared about the weather.  When I was homeless a few years later, we had a saying on the street.  If the weather was rainy, hot or freezing cold, we used to say:  "Just deal with it".  I did just that on that rainy night in Columbia.