[UPSTROKE]

Lee's great story about the big bar fight reminded me of this one. Like all of my stories, I need to tell you how it all came about.
Mistake number one: I hired on with a husband & wife trio. Thereby - breaking rule number one. RULE #1: NEVER go to work for a husband wife team. I think the origin of that rule came from back in the 13th Century when most husband & wife teams were guitar players. That rule has survived through hundreds of years because even today, most husband & wife teams are still guitar players.
As you know, when a guitar player is very young and learns one chord on his guitar his ego is multiplied by 10. This phenomenon happens every time they learn a new chord. By the time they can actually play,-- well--- they just seem to absolutely know in their hearts that God made them to be so special that even He needs an appointment to speak to them. They, of course, rarely grant Him the honor.

Oops, I got a little off track. On with this tale of mayhem. The husband of this pair not only knew how to play six or even seven chords, he also knew that he was by far the prettiest guitar player ever made. He told everyone that he was Italian and he had greasy, wavy black hair. Which he groomed on & off stage constantly.

This bar we were in had a rough history of it's own. The bartender was an ex-prize fighter and knew his way around any good fight. One Saturday night the beautiful guitar player got in an argument with the bartender. I have no idea what the little squabble was about. The guitarist tried to punch the bartender. The bartender just grabed his Beautiful, curly hair & held him out at arms length.
Now if you can visualize this picture in your mind. The bartender is just holding his hair with one hand & this fool is flailing away with both arms trying to hit him. He looks like a girl trying to hit someone. This was on a Saturday night (payday) so the bartender canned us. Then the bartender came over to me & asked if I could get another band by Monday. I said h*ll yes! On Monday I showed up with a far better 4 pc group out of Portland.
Chapter 2 to follow.