"The TREND Was N.Y.C.!"

Was in Annette Lipsey Lynch's hospital room as she was telling me the name of her then new-born daughter. It was January, 1986. Annette had just been in an automobile accident (a fatal one, actually. Her late husband, who had been driving, was killed on site). She was injured and 9 months pregnant. The name Annette and Mick had chosen was, "Chelcie," spelled just so, and that name, and the baby herself, was all that Annette was hanging on to at the time. Terrible, horrible tragedy.

Have watched from afar as Chelcie has grown up (I'm HER Crazy Uncle Brian TOO!) since those dark days, and it has been a delight. She's college-graduated now, and up in the Northeast beginning her career. We're FaceBook Friends. She'd seen the posts on my FB page about my band, The Trend, appearing in New York.

"Brian, tell me all about the show! Nate and I want to attend! I live just north of the city! It'll be so much fun!" --Chelcie.

I tell you all that to tell you this.

Although I of course forgot to get back to Chelcie (sorry honey!), Karma indeed appeared once again in this old guy's life.

As guess where our hotel was located? A little mini-burrough deep inside Manhattan, south of Times Square and north of SoHo, called, you guessed it, Chelsea.

A lesser man would be overwhelmed by all this. The one time I had an opportunity to finally be something other than a cranky old pharmacist/pen-pal to one of favorite youngsters in the world, in the very spot that shared her name, and I couldn't pull it off. Anyway.......

***

Travelogue: The Trend, Take Two.

My bandmates and wife and I got on 4 planes last week headed to The Big Apple. Candy and I were honored(?) by my (yes, another) idol, Don Imus, to be allowed to view his radio/TV show live in person Friday morning, and we couldn't have been more impressed by what we witnessed. He and his crew may have even won over a new fan. Our weekend had begun with a bang. We attended the play, "Hamlet," Friday night on Broadway, got to bed early, then (I) focused (she slept) on the concert scheduled for a small club further downtown late Saturday night.

New York is exactly everything, both exciting and dull, both bright and dark, it appears to be on TV, in the movies, and in literature. Over the last 25 years I've been lucky to have visited there 9-10 times. The overriding constant , as you've heard, is this 'attitude', held by all its inhabitants, of, "Get on with whatever you're doing or get out of the way." If you're just visiting you might as well have a sign on your head, because they'll sniff it out instantly. But in a good, kind of fun/friendly way.

Our show was raucous, our 'frends' showed up (those who could), and it was, well..., o.k. I'll confess, our performance lacked a certain, what?, tempo to it. You might say that the elderly drummer showed his age Saturday night. But com se com sa. One terrific highlight was the appearance in the crowd of Atsushi Kasai, our self-proclaimed biggest fan. He's from Japan. He flew in. For us. He once paid $182.00 for our 1982 album on eBAY. He's crazy. But the kind of crazy that reminded us all of the power of pop music.

Mick, Meat, Mack, Bill, as I texted you all, I love ya. Few fifty-year olds get to do something this (sur-) real, this thrilling. Sure we'd have broken up after 18 months back in the day; but that just means that we have 18 months-worth of weekends left before we do!

And to Atsushi, and especially to Chelcie: Good friends come from all kinds of places. Frends, too.

Brian K. Mitchell, an R.Ph., is the owner of Mitchell Pharmacy in Kennett. He can be contacted via e-mail at bmitchellrph@gmail.com, or log on www.mitchellpharmacy.com.