Peter Yarrow died this week and the news brought back some memories that he is a part of. Peter’s main claim to fame was his time with Peter, Paul, and Mary whom I saw twice. I also saw Mary Travers in a solo performance once. Of course, the bulk of my memories come from listening to the trio on the radio and on vinyl.

Both occasions when I saw them in concert contained some personally memorable moments. The first was in 1966 during my second year of college.

A friend of mine was a major Peter, Paul, and Mary fan, and a friend of his even more so. The friend of a friend was from Charleston, WV, where PPM had a concert scheduled. He arranged for tickets and the three of us set off on a weekend trip in my Renault 4CV. Somewhere east of Cincinnati — but not very far east — a rear axle broke. The details are foggy but we somehow got the Renault towed to a garage and got ourselves back to Cincy where we rented a car. Actually, the friend of a friend rented the car since he was the only one of us over 21.

We made it to the concert and (probably through some contacts with the local folk music community) found ourselves backstage at its conclusion. I don’t believe we actually met either Peter or Paul but merely caught a glimpse of them as they headed to a car and a ride to their hotel. For some reason, Mary’s ride to the hotel that night would be in the passenger seat of the box truck that hauled their equipment. While the truck, which Mary called her “10-ton limo”, was loaded, she casually chatted with the small group of fans surrounding her. When the “limo” was ready, she bid us farewell and climbed up into the cab.

The second memory comes from a concert at Cincinnati’s Music Hall. This was probably sometime around 1980. A co-worker’s wife had a job that somehow enabled her to get front-row seats. This was during a period when I tried taking photos at concerts so I had my camera with telephoto lens with me in row number one. This was all above board and before the music started, either Peter or Paul reiterated that photos were fine as long as flash wasn’t used.

Things were going smoothly until someone several seats to my left took a few pictures with flash firing. A policeman standing on the floor at stage left responded by walking out and stopping in front of me. It was pretty obvious that I had a camera and he blamed me for the flashes. I will never know what punishment he had in mind because at that instant the music stopped.

The performers knew who was and was not to blame and stopped performing to intervene. Paul walked to the edge of the stage and called to the officer to clear me. All I remember saying is, “I think Paul wants to talk to you.” Finding himself the center of attention in a suddenly quiet concert hall, the policeman never turned to the stage or acknowledged anyone on it but simply returned to his original spot in the shadows.

Sadly, I’ve not found any photos from that night and can’t even remember if I had any that were worthwhile. I do recall that the local paper reported on the concert the next day and mentioned the incident. They referred to the person confronted as a photographer which was a first for me and I still think it’s kind of funny..

Yeah, I know that my interactions with one of the greatest vocal groups of the 1960s and ’70s are pretty trivial and involve Peter even less than the other members of the trio. Please forgive me for using his passing as an opportunity to share them. By the way, it turned out that the Renault’s axle wasn’t really broken and the shop where it was towed was able to press on a new bearing and make me mobile for a reasonable charge.