Redding California

One summer we were booked into a club in Redding California. We had been through Redding many times but had never spent any time there. Turns out it’s a really nice place. Beautiful place in the northern part of California. In the mountains with some real pretty clear water lakes. While we were there Ricki had to go back to Salem for some reason. Susan decided to go with her so we decided to have them bring back our boat. We were close to Lake Shasta which is a beautiful lake but the locals turned us on to a nearby lake they said was better. Whiskeytown lake. We started going there every chance we got. They held drag boat races there and we met some of the racers and started hanging out with them. One boat and crew we really liked was a group of guys from Walnut Creek California. They raced a blown fuel hydro which is the big daddy of dragboats. Their boat was named Liketysplit. It was consistently near the top in every meet. The driver was Dewight Bale, nick name Hay Bale. He was cool. He rode a beautiful purple chopper, he had long curly red hair and was known as one of the better drivers on the west coast. One weekend after we got off on Saturday night we headed for the lake and spent the night on the beach so we could have a good view of the races the next morning. After staying there all that time , when it came time to run the big boats it started sprinkling. No way will they race in the rain. At that time their speed in the quarter mile was right around 200mph. It was great fun hanging out with them and watching them race.

I had no idea how hot it got in Northern California. We were invited by some people to a picnic out in the country. They had a spot back in the woods. We had to leave our cars and be transported to the spot on their backwoods vehicles. We got back there it was beautiful and they had a fantastic lunch. But it was 113 degrees and we were back in the woods without a hint of a breeze. It was beyond miserable. We spent most of the day and when we finally got back to the motel we were worn out. Dang it was hot.

We really had a good time in Redding but that was the only time we worked there and I have no idea why. We liked it, the people liked us, we had great crowds so I guess the dates just didn’t work out.

During this time we also did a job in Seattle. Although we had worked a lot in Washington State we had never played Seattle. As I recall the club was downtown and was on the second floor of a building. At the time we were there Seattle was in a real depressed state. Boeing had layed off thousands of people. The club was busy but I met a lot of people that just weren’t happy people. It seemed as though every other person I met had lost his job. We liked the place and we did well but it was depressing. There was a big billboard on the interstate that said ” when the last person leaves Seattle please turn of the lights”. I think we were only there two weeks.

During this time we were focused on one thing and that was getting back to Nevada and working the show lounges. Every rehearsal was divided into two segments. One segment we worked on learning new songs to keep our crowds happy and the other segment we concentrated on writing and working on skits or show songs. Looking back I think one mistake we made was staying a four piece group. I wish we had hired the guy we talked about hiring in Hawaii. It’s really hard to be a good show group with just four people. Anytime you take someone off of an instrument the music suffers. It would be much easier now because technology has come so far. You can actually incorporate recorded music with live music now freeing up people to act in a skit or whatever. Back then we were trying to do it all and be funny too. I think,and this is an opinion some of the others may disagree, this period of time was the best we ever were. Gary was the same old consistent Gary. Working his butt off and totally focused on one thing getting better. He absolutely loved playing music. Beau, the guitar player, was the same way. He was super easy to work with and was talented. Always on time for rehearsal and came ready to work. Had good ideas and was eager to try others ideas. Now the drummer Ron had some issues but he was a good drummer and could be funny. He had a real hard time being on time for rehearsal, but we could usually make use of the time then after he got there and Gary finished chewing on him he was ready to work. As for me well that’s difficult. I was better during this time mainly because it was just a better atmosphere. In the days with Leon I was intimidated I think because he was just so danged good. The music and singing just came so easy for him. I always felt like he was waiting on the rest of us because he had his part down in like one run through. When Gary Stotler, Beau, joined us I was immediately comfortable with him.

During this time we had a few places we always had to go back to on a regular basis. Andy’s in Salem, Adrain’s in Richland, The Canterbury Inn in Spokane, the Longhorn in Portland and then a few new places every now and then.

Back then in order to get into the Casino show rooms you had to Audition. So rather than go all the way to Reno for an audition we were booked back into the Driftwood Lounge in Reno and would audition there.

Next time Back to Reno