Adventures in Chinese Food Delivery - Chicago Style

If you wonder where I got my work ethic, it was from the knowledge that if I wanted something, I could get it, but I would have to work for it.
I worked Saturdays on my father's used car lot to earn enough to buy a banana seat for my bicycle (age 9), and by age 11 I was ready for the big time: a job at the neighborhood supermarket. I got my Dad to front me in by telling them I was 13 when I was only 11. I had my growth spurt, so you couldn't tell. That was followed by a position as "Super Scooper" (I gave myself that name, even used it on my tax return) I might have earned $1/per hour, but it was probably less.

Finally I was 17 going into my last year of high school. I needed a job. My landlord, Clifford Royce got me in at this factory in Addison IL. We made things out of wire. I made it through the winter, then got fired that spring when I asked the owner for a raise.

The Shanghai Inn did a brisk delivery business in downtown Chicago, and they paid daily. Sounded good to me. So now, we present, a few adventures of *"Chinese Food Delivery Guy".

Howard Dong, the owner and bossman, handed me a menu and said "put this on your dashboard and you will never get a parking ticket". Being 17, I believed him, and that menu became my talisman that protected me from all harm: Parking tickets, mugging, etc. Just to be safe, I always parked as close to the door of the building as possible. This often meant double parking, but sometimes meant triple parking. I wasn't taking any unnecessary chances.

Among some of the fun times; Waiting at the main post office for someone to meet you and pick up their order. This was not desirable on account of those people NEVER tipped. One time I went with a big order and waited / /  and waited / / then decided  I must be in the wrong location and drove to the other end of the block. The guy I was waiting for came up to my window all out of breath screaming at me. "Didn't you hear me? I was yelling at you from down the block!!" He was furious. How could I hear him with my extra cool Blankeput radio going at 90db? I thought he was going to reach in and strangle me!

Then there was the time I was at the welfare hotel with an order. This was a place where the desk clerk was behind a thick window and you push your little green pieces of paper through a special slot, and they pushed your key back at you.
Well, there was somebody ahead of me, it was around midnight, so I patiently waited my turn. After about 5 minutes or so, he wandered away and I approached the window.
Two big church ladies were behind the glass.
They said "Did you SEE what that man did?!?"
I said "No mame, Shanghai Chinese Delivery"
Ignoring that, they replied : "He was pushing his Rodney at us through the change slot!"
Ignoring that, I said "Can I take this order up to the customer, or can you call them to come down?"
It was only later in the elevator their words sank in and I about pissed myself laughing.

There are dozens of stories from this time; cars catching fire, taxi cabs crashing into me and so on.

18 months of this nonsense without ever being robbed. Somehow in the back of my mind I knew the odds were stacking up against me. One bright sunny afternoon, I was walking across a field to a low income highrise when I was struck with a panic attack.

It was time to find a new career.






* I lost my publicist from the ice cream days, hence, no fancy titles with this one.

Transferred to Cleveland...

Years ago we knew this mother with a small child and a dog (there was a husband in there somewhere too). One day we were at her house and noticed no dog. When we asked about it, she replied "He got transferred to Cleveland".

Puzzled, we asked her to explain.

"That's what we told Missey" That wasn't the cat, that was the child.
"She knows her uncle got transferred and went away, so that seemed like a good way to go with the dog"

When we asked what really happened with the dog, she explained "he was in the way, we didn't want it anymore, he went to the pound".

I realized that phrase had become part of my vernacular when me and my K9's were on a walk passing a yard and the dogs that usually go crazy when we walk by were quiet. I thought "I wonder where those dogs are today?" Then, "I guess they were transferred to Cleveland." After a few minutes the dogs sensed us and went crazy as always. Just on a break it seems.

I don't recall exactly who that person was now, but she and that family didn't play much of a roll in our social life after that. I guess you could say our interest in them got transferred to Cleveland.

Where did YOU get your Ten-Thousand Hours?

So I am watching a documentary about Frieda, the Beatles secretary for 11 years, and I learned that the group played The Cavern Club far more than I had believed. My impression had always been "the lads" had mainly cut there teeth in Germany.

Frieda had said they performed there something like 192 times, and she had been there for 158 of those shows. Pretty impressive for all of them.

The whole thing got me to thinking of MY Cavern Club, The Carousel Club in Houston Texas.
I started there in early February 1974 just as I was turning 21. I worked with the band  Bittersweet 6 nights a week until October of that year. Let's do the math: That is 54 nights of shows, each night being 4 sets. Not quite on par with the Fab Four, but the idea is the same.

The Carousel; A very interesting place.
The first time I went to check it out, was to answer an ad at the local music store. "Band seeks keyboard player". I made a call, the guy told me where they were, and invited me to drop in.
I went incognito, so that I could leave if it was terrible and no one would be the wiser.
What I found was a band that could draw the crowd in to what they were doing, but sometimes seemed unsure of what they WERE doing. I saw potential, and (most importantly) a gig.

Some snippets of life at the Carousel; Characters abound. on the stage and in the audience. Chili Willy, Earl the Squirrel, Duke of Earl, Jeneane, OMG they all even had there own catch phrases like;
first person: Watcha doing Earl?
Earl: Workin'

That was Duke of Earl, he was a longshoreman union guy. Clocked in 89 hours a week,

A friend of my sisters came out in a big group, and talked with me on a break said "I can't figure out if this is a high class joint or a low class nightclub". Best not to strain yourself thinking about it. Just have fun.

We had groups show up having their wedding reception with us, greasy guys just getting off work, the whole nine yards. Streaking became a national past time so we started a skinny dipping feature on Saturday nights by encouraging people to jump naked in the pool. Many did, including me.

We worked up an oldies show there that took us up and out. It was fun for everybody. 6 weeks after we left the Carousel were were installed at the Galleria Roof, the #1 nightclub in Texas. A tremendous success there led to bookings all over the country. Not the Beatles, but a pretty good way to spend my early 20's.

Nine Things About Me

Big craze, on Facebook at present, "9 Things About Me..." Sort of fun, in light of all the shallow relationships we have, to learn something unexpected about someone we think we have sized up.

1. I met my life partner at the age of 25, a couple of years after a failed marriage. We have been (Happy Together)  95% of my adult life (so far) 35 years.
2. I was born and raised on the West side of Chicago. I moved to the (hipper) Near North side as soon as I could.
3. After a couple of really great years living on the North side of Chicago, I visited my parents in Houston one Christmas. Four months later, age 18, I moved here with my girlfriend.
4. My single greatest achievement is co-raising two great kids that grew into great adults.
5. As a kid, I was really into music. It would have blown my mind if my adult self had shown up to explain I would have a career in which one of my jobs was supporting concerts of my idols; Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dr John, etc.
6. I played guitar my first rock show in Chicago at age 11 for a crowd of around 4000.
7. I played bass guitar in a band that regularly performed for a crowd of 55,000 in the Astrodome as part of Houston Oilers games.
8. I have enjoyed snow skiing since 1975. I have skied the Lake Tahoe area, New Mexico, Colorado, New Zealand, and Jan 2014 Park City Utah.
9. I have an incurable disease called Achalasia.  As incurable diseases go, it is one of the better ones, but it makes for a dubious relationship with food.

Bonus Thing: I am secretly the love child of Elvis Presley and Joanne Pankey.

Momma's baby daddy.

Most Intriguing Family Member?

Everyone has family stories, everybody's family is dysfunctional.We all have Mommy/Daddy issues, etc. But who is the least understood, most interesting member of your family?

For me that would be my mother's mother; Minnie.

Minnie was like a second mother to me, always there the whole time I was growing up, a helicopter grandparent before the label was struck. I was indeed the apple of her eye, could do no wrong, although I was often horrible to her  as a pre-teen.

That she was so... (how should I put this?) Dynamic. She could love on you with all she had, but flip her switch - and I do mean 'switch', and well, remember "The Exorcist"?
As a kid it was like she could never do enough for me, even long after I would say "STOP!"

In 8th grade I had an after school paper route where we pushed carts with large spoked wheels (like horses would pull) full of newspapers. Like the poem about the mail, we delivered in rain, sleet, cold and serious snow.
Minnie was sure I would not make it on those cold snowy days and would just have to 'come to my rescue' despite my telling her not to. I was a kid with grit and would dodge her in the alleyways of Chicago. It was like a game.

She would fight a bear without a moments hesitation for any member of her family, and afterwards, after beating the bear, fight tooth and nail with her family.

The first time we visited as a couple, she was hospitable and nice to R for about 30 minutes, and then vetoed the idea of bringing our small child to see his aunt (her sister) at 'the home' because "he might catch cancer from her". That my spouse would disagree caused her to fly into a rage and the bats tore out from the belfry.
As I started studying psychology, I realized she was, technically speaking, crazy, and we had all been enabling much of her behavior all our lives.

When you are raised in a crazy environment, it never occurs that this is not normal.
Like 'it's not me, it's you"
I will say this, the last couple of years of her life, as advanced age set in, I never saw her angry - she became sweeter and delighted everyone at the nursing home.

Life After . . . ?

You can learn much about someone listening to them tell about their life after high school.
Let's face it, for some of us the door opened to a wonderful new chapter at a large university, with interesting people who (like you) have their whole future glistening (like the Emerald City) before them.

There are also those of us (I include myself in this group) that completed high school (with great tenacity) and had a chapter begin called "Now What?"

Yes, I have a high school diploma, class of 1970 (I don't like to brag) and THAT in itself was a big deal in my family. My father didn't earn one, my mother didn't earn one, my sister didn't and so on...

I had become an earner very early on - 9 years old I worked Saturdays at my father's car lot, and then actually got a real job at 11 years old (my dad lied for me and told them I was 13) in a family owned supermarket ($1 /hr under the table -  more than I made washing cars Saturdays at the used car lot). But this story is what came after high school.

Let me set the scene just a tad more for context. Many of my running buddies (I didn't have any actual friends) started their new lives knocking up their girlfriend and being forced to marry. congratulations. Many hung out at a park and drank Boones Farm wine on a daily basis. I joined them once. To be fair, I did know a couple of dudes who went on to college and thus fell into that first group I mentioned.

My high school job senior year was driving Chinese food to the hungry folks of Chicagoland. I did that after school last part of the semester, and through the summer. I had a moo goo gai pan lovin' customer called George who would engage me in conversation when I would show up at the door of his high rise on Michigan avenue. After a 3-4 of these 'casual' inquires into my life, George invited me to his office to apply for a job with his small company. Wow! 17 and working at a real company indoors and everything!!!

The siren song of Texas called when my girlfriend and I visited my family Christmas '71. Wow, great weather, and pretty easy living from what I could tell. Bye George, bye Chicago, I am (we are) heading for Houston!

Now my second year out of high school and looking to get started in a new town (Sophomore year for you college kids). I did a stint as a waiter at Steak and Ale, a short gig as an apple stacker at Rice Food Market, then worked for a family building an add-on to their house in SW Houston.
Now we are at year 3. During my Junior year at the college of Hard Knocks, I:

1. Got married (age 20)
2. moved to Austin and became a full-time musician

Senior year would be me paying the rent (playing 5 nights per week at a lounge) and working hard to bring the band I was in to 'money' gigs.
A month before my 22nd birthday, our band hit the road for 4 months with one month in Albuquerque NM, and 3 months in San Francisco (where we were, quite literally the toast of the town). Graduation!

Life had officially begun, a glistening city lies ahead . . .

Killing Me Loudly with his Song(s)

Like many my age (b. 1953) the music of Elton John has been part of my life since the teen years. The man has a career spanning more than 40 years. E.J.'s first hit album was 1970, the year I graduated high school. Already a free agent, I was living on my own in Chicago. I lived in a garage apartment (my landlord called it a 'coach house'). I was already the deal; drove a VW Microbus, with a pretty good sound system and radio was half-way decent back then.

One night on the way home from my job delivering Chinese food, I heard an amazing song (Levon) and it blew my mind. So much emotion and energy! So there was more to this Elton guy than "It's a little bit funny..." Being a fledgling piano player,I really appreciated the voicing and the chord changes in that song.
Between the music of Leon Russel and this new guy Elton John, I was ready to throw myself into piano playing for real! I took private lessons at the American Conservatory of Music and got an old upright piano in the garage part of our coach house.

Over the years, I have performed many Elton John songs in many contexts. Sitting in the audience during his show last week really brought it all home. In over 2 hours of hits, each had some place of importance with me at a time in my life. Here are the highlights from his setlist that night (March 28, 2013):

4. Levon - The song that grabbed me first. I had to learn it's secrets, both musically and lyrically. There is enough meat in the lyric to get whatever meaning you may need/want to get. An Elton Song book helped out with the chord voicings.

5. Tiny Dancer - I like this one for a variety of reasons. We worked it up and played it right away when it came out ('dropped' in today's parlance). A cool, personal story of observations. Used very well in the Cameron Crowe film Almost Famous. Tiny Dancer is still a go-to tune if I am on the spot - I can play it/sing it unconscious.

8. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters - One from the Tumbleweed Connection record. I worked it up just for the fun, never done it in a show. The Bernie Taupin words have a flow that that can still grab you by the heart to this day.

9. Philadelpia Freedom - one Elton wrote for his friend Billy Jean King (the tennis player). It uses what was called "the Philly Sound" in horns, strings and b,g. vocals. It's just a song that makes me happy.

10. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - a groundbreaking album for E.J. wonderful music coming from a whole new place, A song I enjoy playing in instrumental gigs, although the sentiment of the lyric is a tugger of the ole heartstrings.

11. Rocket Man - Two local men gave an art show. One was an astronaut who had personally set foot on the moon. The other man was his patron. He commissioned the astronaut/artist to make him a painting. I was hired to play music for the unveiling of the painting. After a brief lecture of what went into painting his work, what else could my first song be?

14.  I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues - We did this one in my 80's trio The Cadillac Band, It was therapy for drummer Bill as he went through his separation/divorce.

19. Daniel - another 'go to' song. 'Played it in many bands, contexts, still play it.

20. Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word - Another tune performed nightly in a duo I worked in the early 80's. My partner (the singer) was in the middle of a love triangle.

22. Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me - A song I sang in 1974, We spent a good deal of time getting the backing vocals down. It was the first time I ever got a 'standing O'.

There are more, but I realize this has gotten past the length of a normal piece and the blogger police will surely be after me. Killing me loudly . . .  indeed.