Mar y Sol

Carmen's mother thought she was sleeping at my house and Mami thought I was sleeping at Carmen's.

We were 21 years old, which sounds ridiculous now, but neither one of us was going to tell our parents we were going to spend the weekend at Mar y Sol.

We went with some friends in a car that I can't believe made it there. I remember we brought almost nothing useful. No proper rain clothes, not enough food, nothing sensible to sleep on. We thought we were very prepared.

Then it rained.

There was mud everywhere. Everything was wet. At some point I stopped caring. I remember being exhausted and dirty and incredibly happy.

For hours people kept saying Black Sabbath was coming. Then somebody said they couldn't get through the traffic. I don't know when we finally believed they weren't coming.

I remember the Allman Brothers much more clearly. Or at least I think I do.

That's the strange thing after all these years. I don't remember the performances in order. Some of them I probably only think I remember because I've seen the names so many times since.

But I remember the crowd. I remember looking around and thinking I had never seen so many people like us in one place before.

And I remember Carmen turning to me at some point and saying, "Your mother is going to kill you."

She didn't.

She was much more interested in why everything I owned was covered in mud.