Sooo, this is my first trip to Texas & was hoping Billybobs at Fort Worth might be a possibility...it wasn't but "The Cattlemans Club" in Amarillo was, I remember the name of that place because 40 yrs later the wife still reminds me once in a while...She's got the memory of an elephant.
We rolled into town on a Friday evening and since we couldn't unload until Monday, we parked the trucks at a truckstop ,then got some motel rooms...it was long past needing "shave & shower" time for us.
Friday night was calm, eat & relaxed a bit, Sat morning we washed trucks and in the afternoon polished tanks & wheels... between visits by the black guys carrying suitcases of every type of dope you could imagine, uppers-downers. I had never experienced this side of life before, dope dealers in broad daylight in the middle of a busy parking lot...brazen as hell and we tried to ignore them at all cost. LOL.
After supper that night we decided to stick together and sample some of the nightlife, a good country music bar was the majority choice. We asked a cabby if he knew a suitable place and said he did so off we went.
At first glance this place didn't seem to meet our expectations of what we had in mind but he assured us it would suffice. It was a very spartan place, a dozen or so community hall style plywood tables, dance floor showing almost wore through spots, a small band stage off to one side consisting of 3 or 4 plywood sheets nailed to 4 or5 upright 2x8's and an old jukebox on the other side. Maybe 6 or 8 other patrons in the place...not a good "first impression"...but that changed big time!!!
The owner, a big old grey haired lady in a moo-moo & a perpetual cigarette in her mouth sat us down, took our drink orders and asked us where we were from. !/2 hour later the door started to open quite steadily for people and then a band showed up and set up. The band singer (a thin dude with a big black hat and dark blazer) pulled the plug on the jukebox (they needed the plug for their own equipment).
Shortly after the band started ( and they were good) , that old girl brought 6 or 8 of Texas's best over & sat them down beside our table, loudly proclaiming to us "that these girls come here to dance and don't you boys be bashful" Wow...not a tire biter among them and one even looked like Farrah Fawcett on a real good day... One of the ladies told us later that the old girl was a friend of hers and phoned her up to tell her that 8 Canadian truckers were in the bar and would she and a few of her friends like to join us....Texas service is beyond wonderful...
But remember from my first post that I am newly 5 months married and had to be a good boy as far as the girls went...drinking was a different story tho... The pairing off & dancing was going well for the other guys on into the small hours of the morning, continuing up to almost breakfast time. Sometime after mid-night the band members mostly went home so the lead singer plugged the juke back in and sat back down to plunk along on his guitar to what was played. I ended up sitting beside him the rest of the night drinking away the rest of the night and discussing my Canada and his USA. He said they were the clubs regular "house band" when they didn't have a "paying gig" mostly somewheres close to Amarillo or where he lived on a ranch.
At breakfast time he went his way and I went mine and the guys& girls went the same way mostly.
That was the end of that story or at least I thought it was...until 3 or 4 years later. Now, I'm back working close to home mostly and one night the wife informs me that there was going to be a concert on TV that she would not miss under any circumstances...this guy was just so hot and looked good in a pair of jeans and on and on she went...there would be no hockey that night on TV as she would be taping the whole concert and further more I had to go to Red Deer and buy 3 new VHS tapes so she was sure one would work...and Im smart enough o know by now that if someone on TV is considered "real hot" by her it is only going to turn out really really good for me
.
So the night of this concert special arrives & we're all ready for it...and out and onto the stage walks this same thin dude with a big black hat & dark blazer on that I sat and drank with all night in Amarillo. Yes, it was the same guy and it was George Straight, he wasn't a big star at the time in Amarillo but he sure was now...and the wife went ape-shit when I told her it was the same dude ( she knew the story of the partying already).
So on & on it has went for the last 40 yrs every time "George" as she refers to him, comes on the radio...I get the "look".
This is getting long so a bit of an "epilog" & "rest of the story" tomorrow.
