“Grab your coat and get your hat. Leave your worries on the doorstep. Just direct your feet to the sunny side of the street.”---McHugh & Wheeler
“It ain’t over til it’s over.”---Yogi Berra
On May 7, 2022, one thousand true believers and a dribbling of doubters walked through the gates of Heartwood Soundstage in Gainesville, Florida into a different world. It might not have been Strawberry Fields Forever, which The Imposters were remembering on the stage, but it was Strawberry Fields for ten magical hours. Everybody knows senior citizens don’t really have love-ins but if they did, this would have been a chart-topper.
The invitees were the staff and customers of the old Subterranean Circus, Florida’s second head-shop, which opened in September of 1967 and persevered for 23 years through The Great Rift between rebellious children and their confused parents, through civil rights demonstrations and anti-war parades and The Golden Age of Marijuana and Psychedelia and Free Love and a massive revolution in music. There had never been such a Time and there never would be again. The nation’s culture moved decidedly left, following the lead of its optimistic children, who believed anything was possible. Call them crazy but they stopped a war, loosened foolish societal restraints and built a retail industry virtually overnight. Some remember them for sex, drugs and rock n’ roll but their deeper thirst was for peace, love and fellowship.
When you leave high school, the world is never the same again. When you left the Gainesville of the sixties and seventies, the same was true, but there were people to see, places to go, jobs to secure, possibilities to investigate. The hippies of the seventies became the parents of the eighties, the movers and shakers of the nineties, the grandparents of the new century. But few forgot the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow…when grass was green and grain was yellow. And when a grand reunion was proposed for 2022 in their old golden land, they heard the piper’s tune and followed. Maybe Moonflower would be there in her opaque concert gown. The party was called The Last Tango, one more chance to remember and celebrate youth, to see your first love or that boy by whom all others are now measured. Is Montana the ancient DJ still alive? Can I still get a smoothie at the Morning Glory Juice Bar? The siren’s song was compelling, the lure irresistible. They packed their bags and headed north and south and east and west to observe the ultimate, the holy grail, the party to end all parties. One more dance, they smiled. One last tango.
Cinderella Stories
At twelve noon on May 7, 2022, Fantasy met Reality. There might not be any crying in baseball but tears were l’emotion du jour at The Last Tango. Ex-lovers ran to meet across broad fields, old friends collapsed in one another’s arms and more than one surprised codger was heard to exclaim, “Bernie—is that YOU?”
A few comments from the visitors:
“As soon as I walked through the Heartwood gate, I was transported to a gathering of all the true hippies I had always wanted to meet. I danced among the crowd to music I understood in a shaded park, reunited with the soul brothers and sisters I had never met but was sure were out there. I was sure I made the right choice when I opted to change my life and move to Gainesville.” (Judi Cain)
“The reunion was just smashing. I didn’t know anybody but felt like I knew everybody. For the first time in months, I actually DANCED and I didn’t care who was looking. I met several people during the day and have kept in touch with most of them. I would LOVE to have gone back for the movie but it’s a long way from St. Louis. I hope Bill does this again someday, I’ll be there for sure.”---(Sara Flanders)
“As I started scanning the field, a petite woman came walking toward me with arms outstretched, a wide grin and tears on her face. ‘Ginnie!’ I exclaimed, holding out my own arms to receive the longest, closest hug I’ve had in many years. I hadn’t seen Ginnie since she moved to Tampa shortly after delivering my son, Jackson, via C-section at Shands Hospital over 40 years ago.”---(Cathy DeWitt)
“I wasn’t going to go. It was a long drive from Virginia and I was by myself but something pushed me into my little car and I made the trip. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. I can’t begin to describe The Last Tango. It’s hard to find words. It was like falling into a hole and winding up in Wonderland. I know what you’re going to say but not that many people were even smoking at 1 p.m. It was just the personal contact, the joy of remeeting people you hadn’t seen for decades. And the music---I hadn’t heard those songs for years. I cried when the leadoff band played “I Was So Much Older Then, I’m Younger Than That Now.” And I DID feel like I was about 20 again. Then the magic just took over. I noticed a nice looking man who seemed to recognize me from about twenty yards away. He was dancing around like a fool despite his years and he started waving at me. “Is that you, Laurie?” he yelled, rushing up with a hug. His name was Alan and he was my last boyfriend before I met my husband. Alan was shocked when I broke it off and he moved to San Francisco where he still lived, now alone.
It was as if no time had passed at all. We were back in the sixties, comfortable and excited. When the Tango was winding down, I went over to see Bill and introduced him to Alan. They shook hands properly like strangers, then laughed it up at my expense. They’d known one another for years. Bill teased me, “Well, at least you’re not going home empty-handed.” I hope it was dark enough to cover up my blushing. Blushing! Imagine! Alan and I walked off into the night, making crazy plans. It was nuts! It was The Last Tango in Gainesville.”---(Laurie Mercer)
Moons and tunes and Ferris wheels…the dizzy, dancing way you feel…as every fairy tale comes real…on Grand Finale Day.
The Return Of Batman & Robin
Jill-of-all-trades Anna Marie Kirkpatrick will emcee the proceedings. Star of stage, screen and Flying Pig Parades, Miss K. will be joined at the microphone by an imposing roster of Gainesville Originals, then jump into a telephone booth to change costumes for her role as Nancy Luca’s sideman. Contrary to rumor, she will not reprise her 2022 role as Jeff Goldstein’s sassy ex-wife, fresh in from Roanoke. “She was too scary,” said Jeff. “Some of the Heartwood workers thought she was the real thing.” Nancy will play the five o’clock #4 spot in the five band lineup. We’re reluctant to sign too many other bands this early because…well, you know…sometimes people die or get sent off to assisted living, whatever that means. Nancy, on the other hand, is indestructible.
I heard that crack from the back row, Gina, and yes, I know the bands are more worried about me being around than I am about them. Happily, I have made a deal with the Devil to reach 90 and the only thing that can breach it is an Act of God or the opportunity to be king of the remote Sentinelese tribe of the Andaman Islands, who are hopeful of getting a ballroom dance team in the 2028 Summer Olympics and are aware that I know people.
Disa & Data
When: Saturday, May 2, 2026
Where: Heartwood Soundstage
Hours: 1 pm until 8 pm, or until the last teardrop falls.
Cost of Admission: Zero
Bands: 1--Nancy Luca, 2--The Couch Messiahs, 3--Cathy DeWitt Band with Wil Maring & Robert Bowlin. Two others to be named later.
Preferred Invitees: Everyone who was in town in the sixties, seventies and eighties. No kids under 15. No pets. Randall Roffe can come, but only with a note from his mother.
Proletarian Invitees: Allowed, but may be asked to bring a brisket to help feed the musicians.
Will Chuck LeMasters be there?: Yes, alive or dead.
Can I smoke marijuana on the grounds? Is the Pope a Catholic?
Event T-shirts?: A highly recommended investment opportunity. The extraordinarily comfortable Last Tango shirts, beautifully illustrated by prominent artist Michael Goettee, have quadrupled in value since 2022 and almost nobody will sell you theirs. Only 250 Grand Finale tees will be printed, so don’t fool around. We sold 300 last time but some of those purchasers are wearing theirs in Heaven and won’t be back. Except, maybe for Boomer.
The Holiday Inn University Center (located at University Avenue and 13th Street) will have bargain rates for Finalegoers. Paesano’s Italian restaurant is on the ground floor and there is an exotic pool on the third floor. Please do not throw Danny Levine in the pool this time. There is a parking lot adjacent to the venue and limited street parking near the grounds. There is plenty of parking downtown, about a half-mile away.
On Friday evening, old favorites Wil Maring and Robert Bowlin will have a show on the inside stage from 7-8:30 p.m.. There are only 100 seats, so get your tickets early. One lucky prize winner will get an exotic lunch date with either Will Thacker or Mister Fistoosh, take your choice. Fifty bucks gets you in.
Are You Coming To Scarborough Fair?
You’ll be talking to yourself if you miss it, like all those rue-the-day flubadubs who missed The Last Tango. Yeah, we know you’re old---who isn’t---but nobody’s asking you to do ten chin-ups or anchor a tug of war team…just a little spin or two across the dance floor with a walker or your significant other. If you don’t have one, we have both walkers and insignificant others looking for promotion at your disposal. Maybe you’ll run into Maizie, your one-time one-and-only or Pegleg, your first pirate conquest or Sheila the Dealer, purveyor of the finest smokables east of Amarillo. Perhaps you’ll discover a pot of Love Potion Number Nine, get an overflow cup from the Lysergic Acid vending machine, hook up with a senior Hell’s Angels chapter which travels on well-padded recumbent hybrids to gentlemen’s saloons. The possibilities are endless. Similar opportunities are not. See you there. No rain checks.
That’s almost all, folks….
P.S.---If you’re coming, write a nice paragraph telling us why. Be careful what you say, we’re going to publish some of the replies in the PIE of June 5th and we have no censors.
