Life was a beach.

In the beginning.

The beginning was Wednesday afternoon waiting for the Beach Boys on the football field at Fort Lewis College. Barefoot dancers in shorts and Hawaiian shirts got down to the local warm-up act, the Jelly Belly Boogie Band. They danced on the grass. They danced on the track. They even danced in the bleachers. They wore leis and they bounced beach balls.

But something bad was in store. As Ralph Dinosaur then Jessie Colin Young played, eyes turned to the darkening sky. The temperature dropped so fast that the well-equipped - who may have seen the National Weather Service's prediction of 60 percent chance of thunderstorms - pulled on their hoodies and jeans. The audience got busy on their cell phones calling family to beg for blankets. Concert-goers Preston Parrott and Julie Moore waited for their spouses to show up with whatever coats and umbrellas they could scavenge on short notice.

The musicians, of course, were in better shape out of the chilling mist in the impressive bandstand as they played to a crowd ranging from people of an age to have heard them 50 years ago and the children and grandchildren of the nearly happily nostalgic.

Then came 8 p.m., and two things happened. The Beach Boys themselves stepped out amid the red, purple and gold lights, and the mist turned to rain as they struck up "California Girls."

Happily, the evening was to be no wimp-out to an unseasonable storm as badly timed as the one that recently canceled the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. But this time, the show went on. So did the dancing, and now it was a way to keep warm as well as happy.

Hundreds of the deep-pocketed stayed dry and enjoyed goodies in the college's VIP tent. The only consolation to the thousand or more kept outside was that the sound was better out in the rain, which turned back to mist eventually. But it never got warm.

The band fueled their nostalgia quotient with hits from other groups of their glory days. They played the Kingston Trio's "Sloop John B," The Platters' "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and The Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'." And we did dream of West Coast sunshine as the rain ran down our necks. Original Beach Boy, Mike Love, led, with Bruce Johnston who has played with the band for over 40 years. The rest of the present Beach Boys are John Cowsill on drums; Love's son, Christian, filling in the role of Carl Wilson on vocals; Scot Totten on guitar and Randall Kirsch on bass.

The weather inspired ad hoc fashion. Garbage bag chic was much in evidence with leis stuck on the instant ponchos as decoration. Glenda Nelson used the sunshield from her car window to keep off the rain and Stevie V. brought his green fluorescent pool mattress.

Music lovers had come from far away. Joe Yeske had driven from Albuquerque, where the temperature was 94 degrees, though he and former FLC stalwart Sheri Rochford slipped out before the end.

The sound system did yeoman work for the band's signature tunes like "I Get Around." It was, however, hard to make out the words on the newer songs that everyone hadn't known for decades. It's the perennial problem of classic bands. The audience wants the oldies while the musicians want to introduce new material. The sound, however, carried enough to give a treat to part of the town. East Fourth Avenue neighbors sat on their porches to listen while music lovers on Main Avenue picked up enough notes to set them dreaming.

Wednesday night was Durango's own little Woodstock except we were short of mud thanks to the groundskeepers who assured there was grass all over the field. Plus, it was so cold people kept their clothes on.

But despite the minor climactic problem, people boogied out still savoring those "Good Vibrations."

Click here to send an email to the author