Monday, October 25, 2010

T-Model Ford and Marriage Counseling

O.K., so maybe they were BOTH watching the game.
This ain't Red, but it's kinda the look he gave me giving me my "Mich Ultra".
After a long day of going to some DAMN scary-assed parts of Greenville & Greenwood (Miss.) looking for famous old blues streets and sites, I walked in "Red's Juke Joint" to see T-Model Ford play on Saturday night. Dingo (door man I'd met the night before) in his damn fine fancy suit said "hey" with a big smile and Red (mean and big assed owner) didn't say anything other than a blunt "whadayawont?". "Mic Ultra" I said (with a smile!). Me and Red had gotten to be buds from the night before (not). I think Red hated me (wouldn't be the first or last on that list). Anyways, nobody knows how old T-model is but there was a 90th birthday party banner on the wall behind him (with a picture that looked to me like he was 50). T-model never left his chair the whole time, I don't think. It was just him and his 12 year old great-grandson (I'm guessing), who watched the college football game on TV most the time while he was playing drums. I sat down at the bar and got to talking to the really sweet young couple beside me from Tupelo (Todd and Emily). Todd had just come back from talking to an older black lady across the bar. The lady had kind of a Geraldine (Sanford and Son) attitude look on her face. Todd said that "Mrs. T" had "summons-ed" his wife (who I was talking to) to go over there. Well, she went (no real option). She talked to the Mrs. T for a few minutes and came back and sat back down beside me. I asked her what that was all about. Well...T-Model was mad at her. She'd said and "he didn't know why". Mrs. T (in the end) told her he's got that "dementia thing" so Emily was like "well, just wait it out and everything should o.k." (which I thought was clever and kinda funny as shit). Well, Mrs. T said that no. "T-Model" holds a grudge for a long time and he won't forget this (I guess dementia works different in Mississippi). So I asked Emily did she know Mrs. T? She said no. Her husband was called over first and he pawned her (Mrs. T) off on her (Mrs. Wifey). I'm telling ya, between T-Models VERY disinterested kid drummer, his wife problems and my new found marriage counselors, it was some REALLY funny! ass! shit! As far as T-Model, he played like a great  90+ year old blues player. Hell, he's ninety fucking years old and he played from 8PM until one in the morning! Well, it was getting late so I gave Red a big hug and kiss (uh wouldn't gonna ask to take his picture. He'd a bitch slapped me and I would said "thank you sir can I have another?"), said bye to my new "marriage counselor" friends and headed back to my shack to rest up for my ride back to Nashville. I'll be back out in a week and looking forward to it, S

3 comments:

  1. So impressed that you went into Red's! Did you get a beef tip sandwich at Stoney's in Greenwood? Check out the Po' Monkey juke joint in Merigold? Who needs to travel to foreign lands when we've got Mississippi?!

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  2. Po Monkey's live music was on Thurs. night and I found that out on Friday :(

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