Robert Plant is a good guy.

 I've got another Big Ed story...The absolute very best part time job I EVER had was being a Swag Merchant. For those who are scratching their head with that I sold merchandise at concerts and sporting events. I really don't remember how I even got involved in it but I'm glad I did. You see Scott Eisenberg ran most of the merchandising that went on in Atlanta including everything at the Omni, sports, concerts, basically anything that went on at the Omni that included selling T-Shirt, hats, posters, and so on. Also we did the Braves World Series at the old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. So you got the picture, Big Ed and I were vendors. We would need to be at an event many hours before hand because there was a lot of work to do before and after the show. This would have been in the late 80's I think. Now remember Big Ed and I were roommates as well as doing this side gig together.

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin were on tour together as strangely enough "Plant & Page". For some reason Big Ed was not able to do that concert. After I got my cart together and put it where it needed to be and all the T-shirts and hats and posters and programs were all displayed in all they're  glory there was not much to do but wait. I think for a 7:30 show they would open the doors about 6:00. We would have been setup by 4:30 or so. The bands would do a sound check no later than 5:00. This was always very cool because they would do a song or two in the sound check. Most of the vendors would step inside and watch and listen because there was no people yet so it was just you and the band and no other noise. 

This night after the sound check I was hanging out at my cart and display when the elevator across from my cart opened and Robert Plant stepped off and walked over to my display to check it out. We chatted for a second and he ask how sales have been? I looked him square in the eye and said, " We haven't opened yet". He apologized and said "Well that was dumb" and we laughed. 

Then I had an idea and I knew I would NEVER have this chance again. I ask if he would do me a favor and he said sure if I can and I said you can. I told him about Big Ed and what a big fan he was and I ask if he would call Big Ed and just say hello...He said sure that will be fun. As we walked the 30 feet to the payphone I said this must get old, I'm sure people ask you to do this all the time and he said, no actually no one's ever asked me to do this, so I felt better.

I popped a quarter in the payphone and called my house and it started ring and I handed Robert the phone...There was no answer.  At the tone Robert said "Big Ed...This is Robert Plant and I'm down here with your buddy Phil...I'm really sorry you're not home I had a couple of back stage passes for you tonight I would have loved to have met you...Maybe next time" then he handed me the phone and I said "Sorry you're not home...See you later"

Robert was laughing and said "How did I do"? I said you couldn't have done better. Then he said I guess it's time to go to work for both of us. I thanked him and he went away.

I got home about 1:30 or 2:00 and Big Ed  was still up and the first thing he said was, "Okay who was that you had call me this afternoon"? I said who do you think it was, you knew where I was...Big Ed responded "€£○|♤ zf:^(  ^%[ "?[=÷ "

His response can not be repeated in mixed company. Big Ed kept that tape for many years after that.

#RobertPlant  #LedZeppelin 

My Soul Food Lesson

 This would have been about 1978 or so, I was still in the Marines and I was stationed at the Navel Weapons Station, Charleston, South Carolina. It was really in Goose Creek, SC but not very people know where that is. 

Being born in the late 50's in Atlanta and raised in Birmingham, then Decatur I grew up in pretty much a white world. I went to Peachcrest elementary school in Decatur from 1st through 7th grade and I did it in ONLY 7 years. During that time Peachcrest was full of white students. I truly do not remember ever seeing a black child there the whole time.

Then I moved to Lakeshore High School in College Park, Georgia from 8th through 12th...Again in only 5 years.

Lakeshore was a bit more diverse than Peachcrest as they still had mostly white but they also had Black, Hispanic, Asian, and we even had an exchange student from Sweden. I said that to say this, I still mostly lived in my mostly white world. Yes I had black friends and some were better friends than others. I played sports and was very involved in the chorus and I had black friends in all of that but it was not until I joined the Marine Corps that I truly had GOOD friends that were black. My first day in the Marine Corps I learned there were NO black or white Marines we were ALL green, and we were. When you are in a life and death situation whether it is real or you are training for that situation you want someone next to you that has been through the same stuff you have and that thinks like you do so when you are knee deep in mud with barbed wire all around you and you stick out your hand for help you are glad there is a green guy there to pull you out.

This is the story of John...He was one of my very best friends that I had in the Marine Corps. I met John the very first day I made it to Charleston and we hit it off right away. If you haven't guessed yet John was one of those Black/Green guys. You see there was a LOT of Yankee boys stationed in Charleston for some reason and me being from Atlanta Georgia, and John being from Hickory, North Carolina we hit it off just fine.

The food in the chow hall in Charleston was pretty good mainly because it was run by civilians. There were only 300 Marines at the base. The base is where they maintained and rotated Poseidon and Trident missiles from submarines including the nuclear warheads there on the base. Apparently the government didn't trust the Navy to guard their own base so that's where we came in.

John and I hung out a lot when we were off duty including eating many meals together both on and off base.

One day John ask how I liked Soul Food...I replied that I don't think I have ever had any and he replied that I was in for a treat. The very next day John took my to a little hole in the wall and I think it was just called Mama's. We parked and went in and I noticed I was the only white person and I didn't care because of what I was smelling...OMG I was in heaven. This was not John's first time because the waitress called him by name and hugged his neck and he introduced me and she hugged my neck, I was liking this place more and more.

She handed us the menus and said I'll go ahead and get your Sweet Tea even though neither of us had said a word about Sweet Tea, she just knew.

John said what do you think about the menu? It's the best Soul food in South Carolina. I looked over the menu and I looked John square in the eye and told him I was a little disappointed. He seemed very confused and ask why?

I explained that I thought you were taking me to some wild and exotic place with food from around the world and I'm looking at this menu and EVERY SINGLE THING on the menu I have eaten at both of my Grandmother's house within past year...Don't get me wrong we had a splendid meal and we came back many times and thanks to John I found out I had been eating Soul food all of my life.

#SoulFood

Big Ed was one of a kind.

 I'm gonna throw out another Big Ed story but first I want to make something very clear, please don't think I'm telling these stories about Big Ed to make you think I disrespected Ed or I'm trying to make him sound stupid, nothing could be further from the truth I loved Big Ed like a brother and we had MANY "adventures" together and he was very intelligent but he did have his times like we all do and this is one of those times...

Big Ed had been a smoker for as long as I had known him and this was a time it came back to bite him. This would have been about 1987 and Big Ed would have been driving an 81 or 82 Buick Regal. He was on his way home and we were roommates in my house in Lawrenceville Georgia and this is the story I got from Big Ed..."I was on 85 North heading home and I cracked my window and threw my cigarette out and didn't think anything else about it. After 4 or 5 more miles I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw smoke and thought that there must be a fire somewhere I just passed and I drove another mile or two and now the smoke was heavy and I looked in my side mirror and saw no smoke behind me and just that fast in my rear view mirror I SAW FLAMES...Fricken Flames in my back seat! I pulled over super fast and pulled off my Levi's jacket and went to work on my back seat, another guy pulled over and helped me with a towel and after about 2 minutes we had it out".

When Big Ed got home he came in and said Have I Got A Story For You! We went outside to scope out the damage. It was directly in the center of the back seat was a hole about 2×2 all the way to the springs. He drove it like that for at least a year before he found another rear seat in a junk yard...Big Ed was one of a kind and I miss him. 

Shot in the forehead

 Let's go back to Bostwick, population 378 to the year 1964 or 65. 

We have all gathered at my Grandparents house for a reunion or birthday party it didn't matter to me I was just glad to be there because I knew I was too young to be given a job setting up or cooking so I knew my Mom and her Sisters would run me out of the house to play and there was nothing I liked better than that. My Grandfather was a Dairy farmer and there were tons of stuff to do on a working farm. I would start in his blacksmith shop, I would turn the bellows to push as much air as I could into coal, no fire so don't worry. Then I would take one of the big hammers and bang on the anvil. I had permission to do this because they thought that even I couldn't break an anvil, they were right, I couldn't. 

Then it off to the hay barn where I would climb to the 2nd floor and jump into the hay stack below and not once did I find a needle. 

As I would wander back up to the house I had to pass the gas pump. This pump was about 10 foot tall with a glass globe at the top. You pump the handle at the bottom and the globe would fill with gas and you take the pump in hand and Mr. Gravity will let you put all the gas you pumped up into your car, truck, or tractor and if you were just playing the gas would slowly go back into the tank, no harm done.

Let's get back to the party, remember I was sent outside until I was called. While I was playing in the barn we had a summer rain shower. I was wearing the official uniform of all boys in 1964, a white t-shirt Levi's blue jeans rolled up because my Mom wanted me to get at least 2 years out of them but it was usually the knees or the seat that wore out first. Last but not least I had on my PF Flyers because I really wanted to run faster and jump higher and the PF Flyer commercial said I could do that with those shoes and I thought it worked.

Anyway it was a REALLY hot day in middle Georgia and after a rain everything was steaming so I wanted to cool off. In the front yard there were 2 really big live oak trees and with a full groth of leaves it was still dripping from the rain. I needed to make it drip more cause I was hot. Around the mailbox and the driveway was made with gravel as were most driveways in the South. I would throw a rock into the tree and glorious water would fall from the leaves  and drench me with cool water. I thought I was in heaven until one-time I threw the rock and I'm looking up waiting on the water and the water came but so did the rock and it popped me right in the middle of my forehead. I thought "Dang that hurt" and didn't think anything else about it so I continued being the rain maker for about 10 more minutes. 

It was getting close to time to eat so I headed to the door. The front door was open but the screen door was locked so I knocked on the screen door and my Mom's oldest Sister Aunt Helen came out of the kitchen with a platter in her hands as she saw me she put the platter down and let out a blood curdling scream and ran to the door. It scared me to death, I thought she saw a bear behind me or something so she opened the door and grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hall to the bathroom, I thought she had lost her mind until we got to the bathroom and I saw myself in the mirror. It looked like Dirty Harry had shot me in the forehead with a 44 magnum. My forehead and face were covered in blood and my uniform white t-shirt was red also. A tiny pinhole from the rock mixed with water and me continuing to play did a number on me. Too bad there were no cellphone cameras then I'd kinda like to see that again.

Helping Granddaddy feed the cows.

 My Grandfather on my Mother's side was a Dairy farmer and his Farm was in Bostwick Georgia. My Grandfather was born in 1888 and was 70 years old when I was born. I'm going tell a couple of stories about life on the farm. 

I was about 10 years old and My Grandfather got up and said to me, "Come on with me boy we gotta feed those cows so I went right behind him until we got to his 1948 or 49 red stake bed international Harvester truck. It was a pretty big truck and I'm guessing it was about 4 foot high in the bed and it was full of hay. We drove down to the main gate and he said, go open that gate and close it when I pull in. There were about 100 acre before you hit the fence at the end of the pasture. My Grandfather pulled the throttle out a little and opened his door as he said "slide over here and drive this truck. Keep in mind he is 80 years old at this point. He hit the ground at that point as the truck passed him he grabbed the back post on the truck and he swung up into the truck and there I was sitting behind what felt like about a 5 foot steering wheel. My Grandfather pulled out his Barlow knife and was throwing bales of hay and cutting twine all in one motion. We reached about half way through the pasture and we were heading to the fence. My Grandfather finished with the hay and jumped out of the back of the truck and ran up and jumped on the running board, opened the door and said slide over. He thanked me for the help and for keeping the truck straight. We drove back to the farm to the hay barn and we filled the bed with hay for the next day.

I was feeling pretty cocky about driving that big ol truck and then loading it for the next feeding.

It took me a while to figure out what had just happened and it dawned on me that my Grandfather would do that exact same thing without me being there.

The pasture was kinda flat and he would just pull the throttle out to about 4 to 5mph and just jump out and do it all by himself everyday, then jump out and run up and jump back in the truck. But what he did was give me a story I can and will tell my kids and grandchildren if I ever have any. Plus I'm telling you about it now!

Sure do miss my Granddaddy!