My Nephew and Adele

By Joanne Celi

Some of you may have experienced catching a baseball at a big league game when you were a kid.  I haven’t but I’ve seen the look of joy on the faces of those kids.  I can only imagine the excitement and the feeling of being special when your favorite player hits one into the stands and right into your waiting hands.

The event in my life that brought similar joy was in the summer of 1965 when I saw the Beatles at Shea Stadium.  I was 14 years old and, in the vernacular of the times, I was a raging Beatlemaniac.  My friend Barbara’s father was a doctor.  Apparently, his connections got him tickets for us to see the Beatles in both their appearances at Shea – in 1965 and 1966.  But that first time was beyond magical.  A girl we met on the line actually fainted and had to be carried out.  The hysteria was not fake news.

There was a moment in the concert where there seemed to be a second of silence.  I screamed out the name of my favorite Beatle.  Miraculously, George looked right at me!  Of course I have no proof of this.  That phenomenal moment in my young life has been gradually reduced to mere wishful thinking.  Over the years, I have less and less belief that out of 55,000 fans, I was heard and seen by George Harrison.  Oh well.

My nephew, Patrick, just turned 30. When he was young, he was a big fan of the Spice Girls.  He is now a huge Adele fan.  So much so, that for his birthday, he and his husband went to Las Vegas to see her in concert.  Patrick wore a Spice Girls tee shirt.  Adele likes to connect with her fans at her concerts.  At one point in the show, she addressed Patrick – she liked his tee shirt! (Being his biased aunt, I feel it was more his luminous aura than the tee that got him the attention.) He was on the big screen and no one got a picture of it.

Later, Adele had everyone stand up, she sang “I Drink Wine” and then said “I see you, Mr.  Spice Girl.”  Everyone turned to look at Pat.   Not expecting to be spotted again, Pat’s husband, Taeo, did not get his camera ready for call-out number 2! Again, he was on the big screen and no one got a shot of it.

Then Adele gave a random girl named Melanie a seat upgrade.  She noted “Isn’t that wild? I just called you out for your Spice Girls shirt and now a Sporty Spice reference”.  By now, they realized that when she takes a break from songs, she talks to the audience.  Taeo was ready.  No one can ever dispute that Adele spoke directly to my nephew, put him on the big screen and called him “Mr. Spice Girl”.  He has that memory forever.

To add incredible to magical, Adele posted the video of Pat in his Spice Girls tee on HER Instagram.  So he not only has this special moment in the archives, but over 2 million fans of Adele saw and liked him.

I wish I had a cellphone in 1965!

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