My parents thought Cher was raunchy, but the only thing raunchy about that night was human behavior.

“Keep going! I can’t get up!”

The mob of people trampled up the cement ramp, hearing but ignoring the woman they stepped over to push forward.

There were great, and cheap, concert seats at stake.

I was on the opposite side of the ramp. I tried to stop but my mother’s grasp around my wrist pulled me forward.

“Mom, how come no one is helping that lady up?”

I don’t recall how my mother answered that day when I was 10 years old. What I do recall is a great sense of confusion towards humanity and my place in it. Shouldn’t we care when someone falls down in front of us? Shouldn’t we ask if they are okay and help them up?

I did see the woman get up and continue rushing forward with the crowd and was glad. But the way I viewed the world changed that day.

Oh, by the way, it was a Cher concert, back when ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ was a hit. Another memory from that night: My parents made us leave in the middle of that song because of how scantily dressed she was. These are the same parents who would not allow me to watch, ‘The Golden Girls’ because Blanche was too racy. Heehee. My parents are adorable.

My parents must be in my head because Zemanta suggested I add the pic below, and when I put it at normal size, my brain was like, ‘Oh no. There is so much skin showing. I better make this pic smaller in case someone is reading this on a laptop at a coffee house and there is a kid at the next table who might look over and see it.’ So I made it the smallest side possible. So small that only one word fits per line in half of the caption.

That night, my parents thought Cher was raunchy. But I thought the only thing raunchy about that night was human behavior. (Because Cher is awesome and the song we left in the middle of was my favorite.)