Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 17, 1992 TAG: 9203170305
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
With Pee Wee were her sister, Joyce Clark, and Joyce's two grandchildren.
In just 25 1/2 hours, concert tickets would go on sale. Pee Wee says if you don't buy in the first couple minutes, you get pushed back into the back rows of the civic center, where you can hardly see the stage for the hundreds of honky-tonkin', flat-footin', fans standing in front of you.
Along with 40 or 50 other diehard country fans, the silver-haired Pee Wee has established an orderly, if informal, way of keeping the crowd civil. She starts a list of people waiting for tickets. At the Salem Civic Center, the list is kept beneath a trash can near the front door. All the regulars sign it.
You can't leave, but you don't have to stand all night on the sidewalk in front of the civic center. You can escape to the warmth of your car, to a seat, to your radio.
It worked when The Judds came to town. Last time George Jones came, too. Alan Jackson, Tanya Tucker, The Statler Brothers - fans were kept orderly by Pee Wee's list.
"Most of the time, the group'll let you leave, if you want to go to Hardee's to get a burger or go to the bathroom," said Pee Wee.
Pee Wee and friends were alone until a couple of women showed up shortly after noon and stood at the door. They staked their own claim to first in line.
Pee Wee approached the women and asked them to sign the list - for their own comfort and peace of mind. They would not.
At 10 p.m. Sunday, a man showed up. He refused to sign the list. He stood on line behind the women.
The wind chill overnight was in the single digits. It was the kind of weather that kills people. Conway Twitty's not worth dying for. Pee Wee stayed in her van, parked 20 feet from the front door of the civic center.
Debra Wall, her niece, arrived that night with "kosher dill pickles in Ziploc bags, hot dogs, a roll of toilet paper, some garbage bags and a slop pot."
Pee Wee was marking her line in the sand. She would stand by her list, not even leaving to go to the bathroom.
Some regulars showed up. They signed the list.
By 5:30 a.m. Monday, there were 50 people in line. Many refused to sign Pee Wee's list.
"You're damned list don't mean s---," said one heavyset man.
"I never heard such cussing," said Joyce Clark, Pee Wee's sister. "It really got foul."
At 7:05 a.m. Monday, the civic center opened its doors - at least to let people in to use the bathrooms, and to get a civic center-issued number of their place in line.
There were 235 people in line. Only a fraction had signed the list.
Pee Wee rushed the door, trying to claim her rightful spot at the head of the line. The heavy man grabbed her, ripping her coat half off, and trying to shove her to the back of the line.
"It was almost a riot! I've never seen anything like it," said Pee Wee. She looks like she would be a wonderful grandmother, but a lousy brawler.
She left.
At 7:30 a.m., after waiting 23 hours in the parking lot, she left without buying tickets.
"I wouldn't go now even if they gave me free tickets!" said Joyce Clark. "I would have to sit next to those people."
Carey Harveycutter, the director of the civic center, and his assistant, John Saunders, said Monday they never have, and never would, recognize Pee Wee's list.
But they cede it may have kept fans orderly in the past.
"If it works, I'm all in favor of it. I'm glad they have a system," said Harveycutter. "But we can't condone it. We can't use it. Who knows how she keeps that list?"
Saunders pulled from the trash four crumpled pieces of paper, drenched with coffee, and straightened them. They were taped to the civic center door when Pee Wee lined up.
"The only factor that determines your place in line is when you enter this door," the sign says. "Lists formed by non-civic center staff have no validity. The time you arrive in parking lot does not count."
Saunders tapped his temples: "People have got to get it through their heads," he said. "There's no reason to buy their tickets here. They can buy from TicketMaster and have just as good a chance of getting front-row seats."
Harveycutter said that Pee Wee's misadventure will prompt him to examine just how crowds outside the civic center are controlled. Right now, there is no system besides Pee Wee's, which - to civic center managers - doesn't count.
Pee Wee won't give up. Tickets for Reba McEntire's April show at the Roanoke Civic Center go on sale March 28. Pee Wee Grubb will be there. She'll make a list and wait in line in her van.
Stay tuned.
by CNB