Before there was BuffettNews...

trojan_sixtyone · Post by **trojan_sixtyone** » August 18, 2006 11:32 pm

I'm still pretty young, and was not old enough to really be involved in the Parrothead community at the age I was pre-internet. So I have a very simple question: what was it like being a Parrothead before internet made wide information and discussion exchanges so easily possible?

I know Parrotheads (pre Tim Schmidt and since) have always had a certain community. It's just hard for me to really picture since I wasn't old enough to participate in that form of it. So who's going to "step right up and show your age?"

East Texas Parrothead · August 18, 2006 11:57 pm

I was so lonely here in the Piney Woods of east Texas. No other parrotheads around.

But, now . . . Angel Beech lives here .... and Mangus is close (Sulphur Springs). And we have PHritz01 and the Plays and Kandy and Dez in the Dallas area.

And, we had all those people at HOOT ISLAND, which would have *never* happened without BuffettNews.

ragtopW · Post by **ragtopW** » August 19, 2006 9:53 am

I would have been showless for 10 years..
I alone do not have the recources to
find out when/where Jimmy is playing before the
date of sell, also I would not have the
....Well the Motivation to fly across the country
to see a show.
Let alone the struggle of tailgating when you fly into the venue
and don't know a soul..

Floridaze · Post by **Floridaze** » August 19, 2006 10:45 am

It was actually a blast...late 70's waiting for new ALBUMS, yes albums to be released...recording 8-tracks and then cassettes to play in the cars, custom van rides to Lakeland Civic Center, Gainesville, Tangerine Bowl, Sunrise Musical Center (places that he no longer plays out), No ticketmaster headaches - just standing in line at record stores to buy tickets, creating our own pre-show parties (before tailgate parties), and just digging the his music year-after-year...now fast-forward to some alt.fan.jimmybuffett news groups, his Fruitcakes release and then a giant explosion of concerts and parties through the mid-nineties until the present....it's been a fun ride and I hope it continues for many more years....this site is great and lets us all share our thoughts and memories....wouldn't change a thing...lots of pictures and semi-true stroies to tell...Someday I Will...

chippewa · Post by **chippewa** » August 19, 2006 10:48 am

ragtopW wrote:I would have been showless for 10 years..
I alone do not have the recources to
find out when/where Jimmy is playing before the
date of sell, also I would not have the
....Well the Motivation to fly across the country
to see a show.
Let alone the struggle of tailgating when you fly into the venue
and don't know a soul..

Amen to all of the above. Instead of a kind of "secret society", it's so easy to find information now. Used to be, you'd hop into a friend's car and see his tapes and say "Wow, you listen to Jimmy Buffett, too? I didn't know that!"

All those years of crude cave drawings and smoke signals seem so long ago...

prrthd1987 · Post by **prrthd1987** » August 19, 2006 10:54 am

There was a time before the Internet?

Dude, when was this!?!?!

phjrsaunt · Post by **phjrsaunt** » August 19, 2006 10:54 am

I had the same love of Jimmy's music and shows as I do now.

But now is BETTER, because I ALSO have way more people to share it with, and to share lots of other neat things in my life with. I also have more knowledge of all things Buffett in general.

Overall, I LOVE THE NOW!

VB for Buffett · Post by **VB for Buffett** » August 19, 2006 11:25 am

prrthd1987 wrote:There was a time before the Internet?

Dude, when was this!?!?!

-- before Al Gore was Vice President

balcony girls · Post by **balcony girls** » August 19, 2006 11:40 am

. .I have mixed feelings about this . .

. . pre-Internet . . BG2 and I started going to shows, etc. in the mid-80's. . (late start, I know ) . .but the only info available was from the newspaper announcing " Coming Events " . . went to the local Piggly-Wiggly and bought tickets . .no biggie. .

. .but the chance for an " up close and personal " meeting with Jimmy was much easier . . the first time we met him in 92, he literally walked up to us behind the stage at JazzFest. . might have been 6-8 peeps around . . then the next time the distance-ing became greater . .then greater . .etc. .

. . now, with his every move being monitored . . it is virtually impossible to get within range of him . .

. .so yes, I enjoyed the pre-cyber space that allowed getting info from friends, and being only part of a crowd of maybe 100 . . rather than 30,000+ . .

. .on the other hand, we only knew maaaybe 4 other ParrotHeads . . and went to many concerts without knowing a soul . .

. .today . .I am " virtually " part of a phamily that numbers in the hundreds . .and can't imagine going to ANY show without the expected reunion . .! !

. .so, I guess I gotta love both sides . .

surfpirate · Post by **surfpirate** » August 19, 2006 4:03 pm

Floridaze wrote:It was actually a blast...late 70's waiting for new ALBUMS, yes albums to be released...recording 8-tracks and then cassettes to play in the cars,..... No ticketmaster headaches - just standing in line at record stores to buy tickets ...

I still have several of those 8-tracks that I bought in the '70s ... even managed to get Jimmy to autograph one a few years ago (http://www.surfpirates.com/piratejournals/8track.htm). Believe it or not I still have a working 8-track player/recorder (yes - find me a blank 8-track and I'll record from any source to 8-track). Nothing like hearing "pause-click-switch" in the MIDDLE of a song as it moved from track 2 to track 3. Not to mention hearing a faint "Life Is Just a Tire Swing" bleeding over from track 2 as you listened to "A Pirate Looks At Forty" on track 4.

And boy do I remember buying tickets for shows several days AFTER they went on sale - even walk up tickets the day of the show.

SeattleParrotHead · Post by **SeattleParrotHead** » August 19, 2006 4:08 pm

Man, it was awful! We had to walk four miles, in the snow, uphill both ways, with holes in our shoes, to get any Buffett news.

Thank gawd for Buffettnews.com!

pair8head · Post by **pair8head** » August 19, 2006 4:47 pm

Before there was BuffettNews... There was Chuch of Buffett Orthodox.

sonofabeach · Post by **sonofabeach** » August 19, 2006 7:06 pm

I got into Jimmy's music in early 99, However I was strictly a SYKBH kind of fan. In late 99 I finally got a home computer with internet access and discovered that Jimmy Buffett was still around and not just living on a boat somewhere. Not only that but he was also still touring and was headed my way.
In Dec 99 I went to my first show in West Palm.
Many thanks to Al Gore and the internet!!!

parrotheadstueby · Post by **parrotheadstueby** » August 19, 2006 11:35 pm

anybody know when COBO will be back up

mason · Post by **mason** » August 20, 2006 12:29 am

pair8head wrote:Before there was BuffettNews... There was Chuch of Buffett Orthodox.

and before there was ...cobo....there was.....alt.fan.jimmy-buffett.....on usenet. and its still out there.

"jimmy buffett--a legend in his spare time"

member of the parrothead nation

irvine

shoreline

vegas 10/28

bravedave · Post by **bravedave** » August 20, 2006 1:41 am

mason wrote:
pair8head wrote:Before there was BuffettNews... There was Chuch of Buffett Orthodox.
and before there was ...cobo....there was.....alt.fan.jimmy-buffett.....on usenet. and its still out there.

"jimmy buffett--a legend in his spare time"

member of the parrothead nation

irvine

shoreline

vegas 10/28

yup

and "Big Dog" Bill Lack's ListServ

LizardBoy, y'gotcher ears on?

Fragile Magic · Post by **Fragile Magic** » August 20, 2006 11:33 am

I've been going to JB shows since 1976 after being introduced to "the music" during college at Winthrop in SC. In those days, Jimmy played several dates yearly at a local amusement park, Carowinds . He also played small colleges during the winter and I saw him at Winthrop and Wingate in addition to USC and Clemson University in the early 80's. After Carowinds, by now the mid-80's, JB played a few years at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, then on to the (name keeps changing - currently Verizon) amphitheatre for summer dates or winter dates at the Charlotte Coliseum. We would watch the local newspaper for ticket info and always made it in! The rest of the year, we would take turns hosting JB parties, buying new albums as soon as available, and spending countless hours listening and yes, drinking^^^we also began wearing "tropical type shirts" in the late 70's...it just seemed the thing to do when going to a show before the term "Parrothead" was coined. We also packed in adult beverages...and gathered before the show for shared food...

Now, I still attend yearly Charlotte concerts with some of the same phriends from the 70's, plus a lot of new phriends found through joining the local Parrothead club and the BN'ers!!! I enjoy listening to the live concerts (when I cannot attend) via the internet but I DO remember the days when the "one concert a year "was all I could see or hear! So, I am extremely appreciative of this opportunity JB provides through the web or Sirius radio to listen in to any and all of the concerts if I choose...and of the opportunity to unite with PH's from all over the workd in our common thread of a love of music!!! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

El Pablo · Post by **El Pablo** » August 20, 2006 1:02 pm

Wow, thanks for the memories. alt.fan.jimmy-buffett was the first internet bubba connection for me. In San Diego our PH club started pretty early and the bar nights were where the rumors started about tour dates. I actually have list of dates from 93 that HK Management actually sent me upon request.

~EP
First show: June 88, SDSU OAT... 45 shows later my liver is not thanking me.

BottleofRum · Post by **BottleofRum** » August 20, 2006 2:30 pm

I used to go to a site called parrotisland.com for info before finding this place.

I first came here in circa 1999 before there were usernames

it was my first and still only message board I post at on a regular basis.

And before that it was the good old 4 times a year mailing of the Coconut Telegraph.

parrotsgirl · Post by **parrotsgirl** » August 20, 2006 3:10 pm

parrotheadstueby wrote:anybody know when COBO will be back up

parts of CoBo still work.....but the discussion board still seems to be down