I think that is exactly what happened when Lake Placid was rockin’ in the 1980s. My good friend Ray Pratt was the head honcho at the state Olympic Regional Development Authority — Ray’s son, Mike Pratt, is CEO of ORDA today.

Many residents of Lake Placid and the entire region agreed that the best thing going at that time was ORDA hosting big name music concerts drawing thousands to the new 1980 Olympic Arena … with seating for 8,000.

Concerts covered a broad spectrum of music, from Kenny Rogers to Phish, with many other nationally known bands thrown into the mix.

But some do-gooder citizens walking down the street must have gotten a whiff of pot (more commonly known as marijuana to you elders) that wafted all the way to the Adirondack Park Agency headquarters in Ray Brook … and that, most of us believe, is what finally put the kibosh to the popular concerts that brought thousands of visitors here.

I have a September 1989 edition of the Enterprise and the editorial makes the case, but it carried no masthead that lists the editor and other staff members.

Here are excerpts:

“The Commission on the Adirondacks in the 21st Century cordially invites you to watch the trees grow. The only form of entertainment for residents of the Adirondack Park.

“Don’t laugh. This could be reality come the year 2000.

“Commission members are starting to sound like a kind of Adirondack taste police. Their interim report, released this week, maintains some forms of entertainment are unsuited to the natural experience sought by visitors.

“Well, excuse us for living. Perhaps everyone who calls the Park home, as opposed to a vacation resort, should clean their cages so as not to offend visitors to New York state’s six million-acre petting zoo.

“Of particular concern to the commission are concerts staged in Lake Placid by the Olympic Regional Development Authority [in the interim report] you’d think rock concerts and wrestling matches are a bigger problem than the strain put on the trails in the High Peaks Wilderness Area by the tens of thousands of hikers led there by the state each year.

[I wish the editorial writer could see the number of cars by the trailheads today, picture Wal-Mart’s parking lot.] “So Read Kingsbury and other commission members feel the Doobie Brothers and the Iron Sheik ‘just don’t fit in.’ Wake up, ladies and gentlemen. We are not talking about loudspeakers on Mt. Marcy. The concerts are staged in a certified hamlet area — where the last Adirondack Commission said such activities should be confined. Where else can we turn?

“ORDA schedules rock ‘n roll concerts to fulfill its mandate to get good use out of the 1980 Olympic facilities bought by state taxpayers.”

Let me tell you all something. Had this concert snafu occurred recently, there would have been no snafu. With my friends Terry DeFranco as executive director, recently retired, and Barbara Rice as the new executive director, they would have been in the front row at every concert.]

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Airport celebration

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“Residents of the North Country will have a chance to see for themselves the new medivac helicopter, dubbed North Country LIFEFLIGHT, at a day-long celebration and fund raiser Saturday at the Adirondack Airport.

“The highlight of the day will be a simulated mission for the chopper, according to organizer Debbie Mueller.

“A simulated car crash will take place right at the State Police aviation unit at the airport, Muller said. The Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department will simulate its actions, extricating the ‘victim’ with the ‘Jaws of life’ and the helicopter will fly in and evacuate the ‘victim’ to a nearby hospital. The chopper will return and remain on display.

“Prior to the rescue mission, which is scheduled for 1 p.m., sky divers from the Malone Sky Diving and Parachute club will put on a demonstration.

“At 2 p.m., Col. Hank Snow and other aerobatic pilots will demonstrate their craft, and Snow, with his small, clipped wing Cub plane, will perform his breath-taking car-top landing, Mueller said. Snow will land on a small platform placed on the top of a moving suburban wagon.”