Fortune Teller?

 I like to tell people that I grew up at the Waffle House. I worked there for more than six years and worked in several different jobs. Some of my best stories come from my Waffle House days. As some of you may have already guessed, many of those stories are unsuitable for online recounting. I'm saving them for my future job as a stand-up comic or as I age more quickly, a sit-down comic. But let's move on.

Every Waffle House had a jukebox. That was when they played 45's, not CDs or whatever technology they use now. The volume was controlled inside the machine by the company that serviced the machines. The Waffle House did not want the music at eardrum breaking levels. About once a month, we would get a letter from our office about volume settings. It was always the same message: If the music is loud enough to make your foot jump, it will make your stomach jump. There wasn't any hard rock on Waffle House jukeboxes. There was some pop, a little gospel and a whole lot of country. 

When I worked the night shift at the Waffle House on Dale Mabry, there was a waitress named Grace. Sometime during the early morning hours, Grace would hand me a quarter and say, "Go play some Conway Twitty and Freddie Hart songs." Do we become what we listen to? I don't know if I did, but it sure explains the behavior of a lot of people today. If you spend all of your time listening to "music(?)" celebrating the degradation of human beings and advocating violence, you will end up at the riots in your town.

Like I said, I grew up at the Waffle House. I like country music. In those wonderful years B.C (Before Children) my wife and I ventured out to a few concerts. In 1981, we had second row tickets to see Kenny Rogers at Van Wezel Hall (The Purple Cow) in Sarasota. At the start of the show, Rogers tossed about half a dozen tambourines to women in the crowd. A woman behind us jumped over and onto us to grab the tambourine headed to my wife. It's been more than forty years and my wife is still pissed about that. But live music is still great.

A couple of months ago, I purchased tickets for us to see Jimmy Fortune perform. Jimmy was with the Statler Brothers for twenty-one years and when they retired, since he was a lot younger than the others, he struck out on his own. I think that he has been on his own for about eighteen years. I am told that he is a tenor. I am not quite sure if that has any value to my knowledge set.

Jimmy was performing at the Isothermal Community College Foundation for Performing Arts Center. Now there's a mouthful. Anyway, it is located in Spindale, North Carolina in the area of North Carolina where my father's family is centered. Since that is a three-hour drive, we made it an overnight excursion. 

The Foundation Center is an excellent facility. They have a few side boxes at two levels where I intend to purchase seats on our next trip there. One box on the upper level reminded of the pictures of J.W. Booth leaping from at Ford's Theater. I suggested they name it "The Lincoln Box". I mentioned that to one of the employees and they mumbled something and laughed. I am not waiting for them to get back to me on that.

Anyway, we were on the aisle in the fifth row. Great seats!!  Fortune was accompanied by a girl who sang and played the fiddle/violin, an old guy with my hair style who played the bass, and a cowboy hat with a guy under it who played the guitar and sang. These folks were great musicians.

When Fortune came out, he said, "We are going to celebrate God and Country tonight!" I knew that we had picked the right concert. He started at 7:30 and they played until about 9:20 without any breaks. At one point, he took requests and answered questions from the audience. You can listen to tapes, CDs, vinyl records, and whatever that format on computers is called, but nothing is better than live music. My favorite song of his is "More than a name on a wall." He also wrote that song. I saw people crying when he sang it. It was very touching. 

Live performances are better than any recorded music. Not only is it real music, but the performers are actually "performing". Their egos are driven by the reaction of the audience, and you get a more spirited version than occurs in a studio. 

After the show, we lined up to get autographs and conversation with Jimmy. In the age of COVID, I was shocked when he extended his hand to me to shake hands. He talked to us for a couple of minutes, and we moved on. 

How do you finish a great evening like that?  If you are my wife and I, you stop at the Waffle House for a late dinner. Hell Yeah!!! If only I had put some money into the jukebox.