W

“It fills a deeper longing that is met only by Red Horse Beer and a the smile from a waitress in a patched, starched uniform with a dozen bobby pins in her hair, where she is the eternal waitress and you the eternal fool. Only the Lonely. Whatever happens next you had better be ready with My Prayer after Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”

Listen to this while you read this post. (open in a new tab)

Funny how at my age, you read or hear something and your old brain kicks in and a vivid memory comes back that you had forgotten for decades.

After I had got (finally) out of WR in I believe April or May of 70, and got back to Texas and stayed the summer with my Mom and Dad, I went and bought me a well kept 68 HD Police Special for $ 450.00. Some of my friends and I stripped it down and rebuilt it with the help of a local machine shop and I painted it black and red. It was the last of the Shovel Heads before AMC got involved and screwed up Harley for years.

Anyway, I said goodbyes and took out to south Texas because it was away from where I was and it promised to be warmer than in West Texas at that time of year. Broke down once because somebody didn’t get the chain link on all the way, got just outside of Houston and missed the turn off and wound up in Pasadena, kinda lost (but who cared) so I pulled into a bar called Gilley’s. I remember that they were remodeling the place and half of it was closed. I spent a good half hour in the restroom cleaning up from a plus six hour ride, then I went out and set down at a table and asked for something to eat and 2 beers. I remember that there was loud music and people shouting, singing and talking, and the bar was full of people much older than me. I being only 21 and fresh out of the Army, I didn’t know what was what or who was who. But it was like cool water on a fevered head.

Anyway, I ordered something to eat and two Lone Stars and was sitting watching the crowd and feeling a little randy, (I get like that when I’m a drinking).

The place was quickly filling up and a guy and his gal asked if they could sit at the table I was at. I said sure and they sat down. It wasn’t very bright in the bar and I wasn’t real interested in talking to anyone anyway so it was several minutes before I even looked at this guy and his gal. There was something familiar about him but I couldn’t place it for a minute or so. Then it hit me like a electric shock.

This guy was Roy Orbison!!

He didn’t have his trade mark sunglasses on but I was positive enough to say to him that I had been a fan of his for years. He thanked me and introduced me to his new (second wife) Barbara Anne.

Needless to say, I was in awe and shock but we managed to talk over the noise and drink a lot of Lone Star and I will treasure that memory until I die.

No there wasn’t any karaoke nor fights or anything else that night. We sat and drinked and ate and talked and drank, and that was the first and last time I ever met an American Legend.

(His new wife was determined to help him get over the lose of his family. That I do remember. That and that she was beautiful and didn’t talk that much)

I sure wish we had more real American legends. Waylon is gone, Willy will be soon and Hank Jr might just be-the last to go.

There are others, gals and guys but I won’t list them here. But they pale against the Legends.

o here is to Roy and his memory. (as I drink a Vodka and V8 with Louisiana hot pepper sauce and loads of pepper.

Thanks for all you gave to America.

Papa Ray