The Great American Saloon Series / Margaret's Blue Diamond
Howland, Jack
PERSONALS ATTRACTIVE ORIENTAL LADIES seeking correspondence, marriage. Dignified presentations since 1984. Asian Experience, Box 1214TR, Novato, CA 94948. (415) 897-2742. SINGLES DATEUNE. Get to...
...The wallpaper was yellow, the workers a touch sweaty...
...The band had started to set up, and Margaret's was getting loud and crowded...
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...Henry opened a door to a dilapidated storefront, and I followed Name (Please Print): Address: Zip: Date of change: L 78 The American Spectator August 1995 him inside...
...It was just a poor crossroads in a profoundly poor part of the country, but graced with a scattering of shacks where the damned of America, men with nicknames like "Pinetop" and "Blind Baby," sang about sex, mules, murder, voodoo, money and love...
...There's no long, dignified old bar, no taps, no air-conditioning, and, on most nights, no white people...
...In an effort to endear myself irreversibly to the other patrons, I approached the bar/refrigerator regularly, always returning with two arms full of Tall Boys...
...0 Renew my subscription for one year (twelve issues—$35) 0 Payment enclosed 0 Bill me later City State: C larksdale, Mississippi, in the heart of the Mississippi delta, was once the Grand Central Station for traveling bluesmen, though certainly not grand in any cosmopolitan or even conventional sense...
...He introduced himself as Henry and invited me across the street...
...That's all there is to it...
...18 plus only...
...2. Attach the mailing label from your most recent issue...
...Henry said something featuring the word "baby" again and I returned with something like "Here's mud in your eye...
...I responded dumbly in the affirmative...
...I could see the veins in his eyes...
...I spent the night in my sleeping bag on the floor of Stretch's hotel room...
...As I watched Henry spill a little Sunny Delight into each cup, I decided the easiest way to quell the tension was to drink a lot—a decision I suspected Henry made daily...
...I recognized the song: B.B...
...His brow wrinkled quizzically, and I studied for the first time how he looked...
...She just raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips...
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...We went inside and had a seat...
...The fat women coyly batted their eyelashes at him, and when he wasn't winking back, Henry was fighting off his friends who wanted a swig of our whiskey...
...In terms of decor, it's somewhere between Hole-in-the-Wall and Crack Den...
...Henry led me into a short-order restaurant...
...He hurried me out of the place, around the corner, and down an alley...
...I pulled the tab off another Tall Boy...
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...I'm not even sure if I could remember how to get there...
...Call 1900-370-0686/Ext...
...I had sobered up enough to drive, but apparently not enough to demur from hitting on the girl at the Burger King drive-thru window...
...Twisting off the plastic cap of the whiskey bottle, Henry announced that he didn't expect the music to start until eight...
...By eight I'd acquired some friends and a significantly more relaxed demeanor...
...And though it was old, it had a subtle, undulating force, rolling through hips, dipping with the slight shoulder of a woman in a red dress, holding tight to her hand and the small of her back...
...305) 525-0800...
...He wore a red tank top and had long, black arms with slender muscles that somehow seemed a touch older than he was...
...Walking up to a few men drinking in front of an old filling station, I asked if there was a place to see live blues around...
...What little light there was was provided by a few bulbs dangling on their cords...
...I paid for it, and with the tinkle of the bell above the door frame, we stepped back out into the advancing summer evening...
...Margaret's began to pitch androll, as if we were in the hold of some dingy ship, and the air seemed to thicken with the smell of smoke, sweat, and beer...
...Noting that she was just as fat as the other women and that the kid was no slouch in the fat department himself, I quietly admired the way Henry stuck to his guns...
...With a stiff sense of ceremony, we raised our plastic cups to a toast...
...Henry inquired, rather loudly I thought, if this was what I had in mind...
...Stretch was, by his own account, a regular at the Blue Diamond...
...Henry sort of shrugged at me...
...Finishing, he studied her face to see if she bought it...
...Knots of mute people sat around a handful of tables, beer cans held motionless halfway to their lips, cigarettes smoldering on the edges of ashtrays...
...Her head cocked to one side, her hands on her hips, an "Are you through yet...
...2 per minute...
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...The owner of the country music Jack Howland is The American Spectator's editorial intern...
...I turned the booze over to Henry, promising I'd be right back, then ran off...
...At least for me it did...
...Pointing at a juke box, he asked me if that was what I was looking for...
...As the music surged into the evening, a slightly more reckless tenor crept into everyone's sensibilities, a sort of slow epiphany...
...I would only have been half-surprised if she'd produced a rolling pin and swatted him with it...
...Henry and I laughed quite a bit...
...I don't remember any windows to peer through...
...I explained again that I wanted to see live blues music in a bar...
...I was now one of two white people in the place...
...The blues rolled hazily out of old amps, beer bottles rocking on top of them...
...something sizzled on a large rectangular grill behind the counter...
...Just be sure to allow six weeks for your change to take effect...
...I thanked him...
...Single and Christian...
...24 hours...
...Slowly I made out a short stage, grayish-green walls, a Colt .45 poster, and balloons that sagged from the ceiling as if left there from a birthday party in the thirties...
...A wave of voices, music, and smoke washed over me as I stepped back inside...
...the other was a photographer who introduced himself as Stretch...
...The rhythm section huddled together, driving a steady blues pulse...
...Heading down the alley, it dawned on me that my car was still where I'd left it, several blocks away, and that I should probably keep it within eyesight...
...All I remember is that Margaret's is on the other side of the tracks and down a dusty alley...
...Margaret's is in the part of town best described as the ghetto: boarded-up buildings, loiterers, people hanging out windows yelling at one another, the works...
...0 ff the shelves we pulled a fifth of Seagram's Seven and some Sunny Delight orange drink...
...I egged him on, even helping out when I could...
...Though my suburban instincts whinnied and brayed, I resolved that I was too close to call it a night...
...We sat outside the entrance talking as, above, insects buzzed around the yellow streetlights of the alley...
...bar who directed me there had actually called it "the other side of the tracks," and I remember weighing upon arrival the possibility of being killed (good) against the indignity of retreating to some motel (considerable...
...That gave us about an hour and a half with one another, with nothing to mask the feeling, palpable to both of us, that I was an interloper...
...King's signature tune, "The Thrill Is Gone...
...One guy, about twenty years my elder, finally said something to the effect of "Sure, baby...
...She'd come down to Margaret's to drag Henry home by the ear...
...On the wall behind him was a calendar and the framed portrait of a young Marine...
...Around me men and women moved in each other's arms with a sultry ease...
...I took a long draw from the beer, and then, looking around, noticed that no one was looking back...
...I was talking loudly about the military, which I've never been a part of, and my fraternity, of which I was the VP...
...Henry was busy hitting on some of the fattest women I'd ever seen...
...Avalon Comm...
...I smiled like a bad salesman as they shared a few looks...
...People stood up, hesitating only for a moment to straighten a shirt sleeve or the pleat of a dress before heading out to dance...
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...He assured me that my car would be safe...
...expression on her face, she listened as Henry valiantly made the case for his staying to look after me...
...1. Please write your new address in the space provided...
...There's at least one genuine juke-joint left in Clarksdale, a place called Margaret's Blue Diamond Club...
...It doesn't have a sign...
...0 The American Spectator August 1995 79...
...Box 1978, Marion, Ohio 43305-1978 (Please attach address label here...
...le Cal TOUREffor Ra Mandan 1-800-505-0505 Ext226 Margaret's Blue Diamond Club by Jack Howland r MOVING...
...We shook hands...
...The music started...
...Then, like a neon bar light, the idea that I could foot the night's bill sizzled to life in his glance...
...He liked his fat people...
...For a moment before going back inside, I watched them walk away down the alley...
...L ate in the evening, I got to meet Henry's wife and son...
...When I pulled up in front of Margaret's, Henry was waiting outside for me, apparently not convinced I was coming back...
...I spent one summer night there a few years ago, and I haven't been back since...
...In front the guitarist sang that old song with its old theme...
...Behind a refrigerator in the corner, an older man stood expressionless...
...After the bright summer afternoon everything inside was utterly dark and formless...
...Get to know someone you'll really like...
...Instead, they have a flip-top refrigerator where you can buy Budweiser Tall Boys for around $1.50, and some great live blues...
...At around three, the Blue Diamond emptied raucously out into the alley...
...He then recommended that we go across the street to the liquor store...
Vol. 28 • August 1995 • No. 8
