Marilyn de Jong Interview

nterview with Marilyn de Jong

April 1, 2023

Memorial Stadium

Champaign, IL

Interviewers: Jose Arellano, James Perkovich

JA=Jose Arellano

JP=James Perkovich

MD=Marilyn de Jong

 

JA: Okay, so my name is Jose 

JP: I’m James 

MD: And I’m Marilyn 

JA: And we’re recording on April 1st at the Farm Aid History Harvest. Could you please state your name? 

MD: My current name is Marilyn de Jong 

JA: Could you spell it, too? 

MD: The last name is D, E, capital J, O, N, G 

JA: Okay, how did you first hear about the event? 

MD: I think I probably heard it on the news or in the newspaper. At the time, my mom was working at University Printing Services, and so I think employees had the chance to buy tickets and so she got tickets for my boyfriend and I – my boyfriend at the time we bought the tickets.  

JA: What made you go to the event? 

MD: Well, I just knew it would be a historic event and it was for a good cause because I knew they were raising money for the farmers in the area, and my boyfriend, fiancé, we loved music and so we wanted to experience that.  

JA: What did you know about the farm crisis beforehand? 

MD: Not much of anything.  

JA: Were you a student at the University? 

MD: No, I just grew up in Urbana. Actually, 1985 was the year I graduated from Urbana High School, so I’ve always been around here.  

JA: Were you particularly excited about any of the acts? 

MD: Probably so, I love John Cougar Mellencamp or whatever his name was at the time, and Willie Nelson, the Beach Boys, a lot of Bon Jovi. I grew up and graduated in the ‘80s, so Bon Jovi was a big one at the time.  

JA: Could you describe the day of? 

MD: Well, I remember some of the music but the most memorable thing was having to stand in line on the streets or where ever we were lining up because of course, you got let in and you just had to get in; it wasn’t like there were assigned seats. And it rained, so I remember being tired and I think at one point I’m just laying in the street waiting for the gates to open and getting wet. And my boyfriend, who the night before the concert became my fiance, he moved to Indiana earlier in the year, in the summer I think, and so he came back for the weekend because we had tickets to this concert, so we got up early and came to this, and we didn’t like being apart so we got engaged the night before, so us being together was a big thing. And standing out in the rain trying to get in, waiting to get in.  

JA: How long did he stay?  

MD: He was just here for the day. How long did we stay for the concert? So actually, because we ended up over there in I think the East upper deck and further away because it was so crowded, and I think we stayed until early afternoon, but it was cold that day and we were soaking wet and so it was being televised on TV and his sister had an apartment in town, or actually he and his sister used to share an apartment, so at one point we decided, I think it was early afternoon, it was like ‘I think we might have a better view if we just go home and watch this on TV, and we were freezing and cold, and so our biggest thing, at that point, we were just glad to be together and we were enjoying all the music and stuff, but it was quite crowded so we did end up not staying the whole time, which I kind of wish we had, but if it hadn’t been so cold, we probably would have, so we ended up leaving early afternoon.  

JA: What performers did you see? 

MD: I’m trying to remember, that was the one thing I’m trying, the ones that were early in the day. It seemed like it wasn’t quite-it wasn’t the big names. I know Roy Orbison came later in the day; I remember seeing him on TV, but I think we did see John Cougar and I think Bon Jovi, and I can’t remember which other ones. Honestly, it was just I was so happy to be with him. I can’t remember a lot about the music at the time, but it was just something to be there and experience it.  

JA: One thing I’m wondering is you said you grew up in Urbana, spent your whole life there up to that point, I’m wondering if you could paint the picture of how galvanizing this was for the community. It seems like it was a huge event, and I’m not from Urbana but Urbana has this small town feel that kind of captured the imagination in Urbana.  

MD: I think myself and a lot of people I know, we were proud to say Farm Aid was here in our town. And again, since I grew up here and there were a lot of students in the area, so we were townies, but {unknown} whenever you are out in other places and you say where you’re from, you can say Urbana and people don’t know that, but then for a long time, you could say where the original Farm Aid was, so it was great that it was here and it was something we could be proud of that they were able to do it here.  

JA: How did you feel when it was over? What was the impact on the community? 

MD: I’m not sure, I didn’t hear a whole lot about it. Actually, I’ve seen stuff on Facebook and Instagram, mostly on Facebook, people talking about different stories and getting ready for this today. People were saying that they met people like Loretta Lynn at the Holiday Inn that we had at the time and stuff like that, but I don’t remember hearing anything about experiences with the entertainers or anything, but I think we were happy just to experience that day and I don’t remember much after that. And I was hoping, I think I heard that they were able to raise a lot of money to help people in the area 

JA: So you said that before the concert, you didn’t know much about the farm crisis or what was happening, but after the concert, did you feel more informed or does that lead you to maybe ask questions about ‘hey, what are the farmers experiencing?’ 

MD: Yeah, I think I might have, because even though my mom’s parents were farmers, they were in Kentucky but then they were gone by then. But it was, I think I knew it was tough on the farmers in the area and all over. But yeah, I think maybe I did know a little more about it because obviously it was a real crisis, that they were really having to raise money for and things, but again, I was an 18 year old, so I’m not sure how much I knew about what was going on in the community, other than whatever I was doing, probably. 

JA: I think that’s all the questions I have. Alright, well, thank you so much. That was very interesting. I think we forgot to do that, one of the permission [slips].