While I was still living in the ORANGE ROOM, I played in a traveling Rock Band called Maiden Cane. Perhaps some of you readers would remember us. Once I hit 20, I moved out of my parents house and THE ORANGE ROOM and shared a house with our drummer and friend in Creve Coeur Il. I was working at the Bergner's Downtown store in the electronics department but eventually, I had to quit that job. We were playing so much out of town that it was becoming difficult to make it to work on Saturday mornings. It was then, I became a "professional" musician. Money was tight but we sure did have a lot of fun!
In preparation for Thanksgiving tomorrow, I began to let my mind wander back to those lean years and I seemed to recall a road trip that ended badly and prevented us from our Thanksgiving dinner with our families. However, it wasn't Thanksgiving at all.... it was Easter! I had to text our drummer and ask him what he remembers from that particular road trip from hell. Between the two of us, it went something like this:
We had played in either Fort Madison or Burlington Iowa on April 5th 1980. It had been raining a lot that night and somehow we got lost on our way home. We were usually tired and had been drinking.... so getting lost was customary in the days before GPS. We think our guitar player was driving and tried to turn our equipment truck around outside a farmers yard and got stuck in mud.... all the way up to the trucks axels! Our Truck!!! Our DEAR TRUCK!!! We called our truck the DUMB RED DOG as it was purchased used and fairly cheap from the MORNING SUN FIRE DEPARTMENT. It stuck out like a sore thumb and still had the Morning Sun Fire Dept on both sides of it. It was a death trap and definitely NOT meant to haul 5 or 6 guys around loaded to its gills in PA gear and band equipment. It had two seats and and everyone else had to find a way to get comfortable for our lengthy road trips. I usually sat on the dash board with my back against the front window. Someone else would stand in the door well while another sat on a rolling amplifier between the seats. We all took turns for the passenger seat.
Since it was late, we decided to sleep in the truck until morning before waking the farmer and asking for help. No cell phones. How the hell we slept is a mystery to me. We had to have slept standing up or in some other compromising position. Oh well, we were young and we did what we had to do.
Once it was morning, we decided to walk up to the farm and ask for help. the farmer was a nice guy and reminded us that we were going to miss Church if we didn’t get moving as it was Easter morning. We had forgotten but I WAS looking forward to a home cooked meal at my Grandmother's house later that day. We were all broke and starving most of the time. The Ham and mashed potatoes were dancing in my head so we needed to get the hell out of there without any more talk.
We thanked the Farmer and began our way back home to Peoria. We were traveling a two lane road outside of Galesburg when we all realized that THE DUMB RED DOG was going to pull another prank on our starving asses. The damn thing just stopped running and we were forced to pull outside another farmers house. So close yet so far!!! It's here that my memory kind of blanks out. We were so tired and so hungry and so PISSED.... I think I've blocked it out of my mind. I seem to remember calling a gas station / tow truck and we just waiting and waited for hours until the DUMB RED DOG was towed and then eventually fixed. I guess we were lucky since it was EASTER. I think that's what happed. All I know for sure was we finally got home after dark and my girlfriend at the time who had been with my family for Easter, brought be some of the Ham and Lime Jello with Pears in it. My favorite. We problem spent every dime we made that night and then some for the tow and the DUMB RED DOG REPAIR!!!!
There would be more travels in the DOG but on this particular night, I just licked my wounds, ate my lime jello and went to bed. Another Tale From The Orange Room.
After parking the BIG DUMB DOG out front of my parents house. Getting some breakfast.
Sometimes the hard times make for good stories later and good memories.
If you don’t remember it, then I have to assume to was my mom.
I was your gf at that time. I don't remember having Easter with your parents or bringing you jello!