For 25 years my blues brother and I
threatened to go to Beale Street in Memphis - THE blues music and fun and food
and drinks mecca of the earth. We waited long enough. We finally did
it while we both still can. In 25 years we could not have imagined how much fun
we would have. The whole time, we laughed until our faces hurt.
These are the photos we took of that adventure.
There are just too many stories to go
with every single one of these photos, but I will relate one. We capped
off our two-day visit with tickets to B.B. King's Blues Club to see...who else?
B.B. King. He doesn't play there often, but it just so happened he was
playing on the night we were there. All the stars and planets aligned.
B.B.'s club is also a restaurant.
Fabulous food. We were into the REAL hot chicken wings and fried pickles
when I had to go pay rent on plenty of beer. So, I went to pee and as soon
as the stream hit the water....I mean that INSTANT...the building's fire alarm
went off. Ear-piercing BUZZ-BUZZ-BUZZ and the building's lights were
flashing at the same time.
I came back out of the bathroom and it
was no time before the Memphis Fire Department showed up in full gear on the
really big truck. They came into the entrance but they just sort of stood
around there. They were standing there, and I went and told one of the
firemen, "I'm sorry man - I did that. I set the alarm off. See, I've
been eating those hot wings and I went to pee, and that's when the fire alarm
went off. I did it. I'm sorry." The fireman laughed hard.
Dennis was standing right there and
laughed until he almost died. I nearly killed Dennis when I said that to
the fireman. But the firemen all just kind of hung around for a while.
They weren't DOING anything. Finally, when they made their getaway, one of
them was carrying a HUGE stack of styrofoam dinner plates. While they were
there, they ordered supper. Now, how cool is THAT?!?! That's what
the fire truck photos are about.
Sue Unit said to leave these photos
full-sized, because they contain details of what the place really looks like,
all the memorabilia and such. So, apologies if you have to scroll around.
Big photos. Click on the thumbnail images to make them be big, then use
your browser's BACK button to return here.
