Always…
Last night I went to see a musical at one of our many local theatres. It was Always Patsy Cline and it was outstanding! I was a little concerned it would be a little over the top or that the lead wouldn’t do Patsy’s voice justice, but I was not disappointed. Granted, no one since the day she died in 1963 has been able to match that pure voice of her’s but this actor made the part her own and did great. Could you imagine having a job where you got to sing Patsy songs all night every night? That would be awesome! Not just Patsy songs, but there was some Kitty Wells thrown in and well numerous others from the early and late ’60’s; everything I was raised on.
The show was based on a true story of Patsy’s friendship with a fan (Louise) from Houston who befriended Patsy in a Honky-tonk in Texas in 1961 and remained friends with her until Patsy’s death in 1963. You know, in today’s age of entourages and posse’s and agents and management, I wonder if that could even happen anymore? Could an average fan become friends with a celebrity? Hummm, I wonder? In this case it started because Patsy walked into that bar all alone prior to doing her show and Louise approached her. Partially because she loved her music but also because she looked lonely. Patsy didn’t blow her off go wait in her dressing room like I believe stars of today would. She sat down at Louise’s table and had some beers with her. What a crazy idea. 
Anyway, it was a fun night of music. My friend and I had to do our best NOT to sing out loud to all the songs. It was for the sake of the people around us really. Oh who of which were at least 20 years older than us. I tell you what people our age and younger just do not appreciate good music any more… tisk tisk tisk.
I was with my friend Kim, so after the show we headed for our normal hang out. I’m not going to name it for fear that any stories told about this establishment could incriminate the staff and also our friend. It seems when she and I are together all roads lead to this location. Not at all a bad thing, it’s a pretty cool place. We’ve made pretty good friends with the bartender. I know a lot of people say that? However, in our case it’s true.
We first went there early this summer, it was packed. I met Kim and one of her work friends there for a night of dancing. I’m pretty out going, but Kim even more so. By the end of the night she was trying to broker a phone number exchange between this cute little barely 21 year old and this VERY hot our age bartender. It didn’t go so well, but the bartender thanked her for her efforts. The next time we stopped in he was working and immediately recognized us (YES it had been several weeks, we aren’t that much of a lush!). It was a slow night and he talked to us the entire night. We still didn’t know his name so to us it was sweetie. He really didn’t seem to mind. It was kind of fun being on the other end of the name for a change though. I could say “Hey Sweetie?” and he would look up from the other end of the bar and see if I needed anything…Nice! Kim and I visited with him then went on to dance for the rest of the night, but we still checked in on him to make sure he was working. See, I was running a tab and I wanted to make sure HE would get my tip and not one of the other bartenders. Time came to tab out and Kim and I looked at our bills and it was a fraction of what it should have been. I mean a fraction! I looked up at him, and questioned him on it and he just shrugged his shoulders and said ‘hey! I just punch in what you guys order, the register does the rest’. yeah right sweetie. okay! Needless to say, he got big tips from both of us.
Sweetie was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of my boo-hoo fest when my military man left. Lucky him! But between him and Kim I was laughing like crazy by the end of the night. Then we stopped in about three weeks ago and he wasn’t there, talk about boring! I think we still danced and everything, but even the waitresses didn’t seem to be having a good time; interesting…
So, last night we stop in and belly up to the bar so to speak and Sweetie sees us and really his face lights up. He says where have you been? We tell him we were there but he wasn’t. He said yeah and explained he’d been on vacation. Although it’d been well over 6 weeks since he’d seen us he got our drinks without having to ask what we wanted. I know-that’s just a sign of a good bartender. I get out my card to start a tab and he tells me we’ll settle up later…ok. He tells Kim the same. They were packed last night. I mean busier than I’d seen it in a very long time. We went and danced for a while but personally I wasn’t feeling it. However the funniest part of the dancing was this huge guy wearing a cowboy hat long shorts and cowboy boots. What the heck? Oh and this is a predominately caucasian area, so it’s already pretty hilarious watching everyone try and dance to hiphop, but THIS guy was really something! ha!
We head back into the bar area and talk to sweetie some more (Oh, by the way? Yes we do know his real name now, but I’m not going to say it, again for the possibility of incrimination). By now it’s slowed down quite a bit in there and he seemed to welcome the chance to visit with us while restocking. We learn more about his family out of state, his brother what he does for his real/day job, which I’m guessing more than pays the bills and goes to show he’s doing the night time gig for fun. Then all of a sudden this large man comes and sits next to me asking for the number of a cab company. Well we are in the middle of suburbia. There are no cabs in suburbia. Sweetie tells him he’s sorry he doesn’t know of any. Big guy turns to me and says, which way are you guys headed, north or south? I said both. Kim said she’s going north, I’m going south. Big (drunk) guy says could you please just give me a ride to the hiway? My friends left me here and I don’t have a ride. I’ll pay you. Kim says why just the hiway? He says well cuz I can walk from there. WHAT? Then I look at him a little closer and almost bust out laughing. I lean over and whisper to Kim. ‘THIS is shorts and cowboy boots guy!’ Holy shit! Ha!!! Kim just busts out laughing. Kim says where do you live? He tells her and she says no we’ll give you a ride. You’re not going to walk on the hiway, you’ll be killed. Then he expresses his gratitude by letting out the loudest rip roaring “HOWWWWWLLLLLL” then reached out his hand to me and said ‘hi my names Bubba, what’s yours?’ I looked over at Kim. Dude, did he just howl? Dude, did I just say dude? Oh lordy! This would be the first of many rip roaring howls of the night.
Time came to settle up our tabs and it started to become clear that sweetie wasn’t going to charge us for our drinks at all. Granted we didn’t drink that much, but still…we drank. Myself I probably drank about $20 worth and Kim about $10. Difference being I like mixed drinks and she likes beer. So we both leave tips out on the bar and Kim heads to the restroom. Sweetie stops back by and sees the money asks if it’s for them. I said yes and he asks why. I told him well he wouldn’t let us start tabs…he said, your my friends now. My friends don’t pay. Ahhhhhhh! (although as a side note, I think I did the high jump straight into the buddy zone with him and now he’ll NEVER ask me out! ugh!!!!)
Kim gets out of the restroom, catches my eye gives me the look only girls know which signifies we are totally ditching this guy and we start to tip toe out the door very quietly. We are three steps from being home free when God love him, sweetie calls us back in and says NO WAIT you can’t leave yet! He didn’t get his hug goodbye. Okay, that was worth getting stuck with Bubba howling in the back seat eating Kim’s leftover crispy creams. Bubba got home safely. Okay, well I can’t say that for certain. We got him to the parking lot of his apartment complex safely. Last we saw him he was wondering around very confused. Luckily the rain and storms were over. If he didn’t make it inside, he was at least safe in his own neighborhood and not trying to walk down the middle of the freeway all night.
***Now, I feel I must say this. DO NOT EVER take strangers home from a bar! EVER!! Kim and I were completely sober. This guy was harmless. Sweetie could vouch for him.***
So there’s my night out. I have nights out every weekend for the next 4 or 5 weeks! I hope I survive, I’m getting old, man! I hope you all are doing well. I haven’t talked to anyone in ages!
Here’s just a taste of Ms. Patsy Cline thanks to youtube:
