Up another mountain, a musical interlude, Ham biscuits and a pretty nice find!

  When we finally made it down the mountain (thanks again, Elaine!) I thought I'd treat mom to a swanky hotel. I thought. We checked into the downtown Marriott in the heart of Chattanooga...got the bags outta the car...lugged 'em upstairs...and....one bed. Lugged all the stuff back to the elevator, back down to the desk.."Uh, we only have one bed".....back to the elevator....we got a handicapped room, which was fine (hey, i'm not handicapped, i'm just 'special'!) I noticed the smell right away...at first I thought "Jeez, my deodorant really let me down, not surprisingly after that ride"...but, no...it wasn't pukey, and not quite sewer-y...but it was there...by the door...not in the bathroom, or in the bed part...but it was there. It haunted me. I was tired. I let it slide.  We were on the sixth floor, with a beautiful view of a roof and a parking garage...for $180 a night. Grrrrrr....

   We hurried the heck outta that rat hole and headed back up....yet another mountain. This time it was Signal Mountain...and in minutes we were at Sale Number One. On the porch of what was surely a very, very old-but-cool lookin' building, they were selling breakfast. 'Hey, Ma? Wanna eat here?" She was game. I scoped the menu...it was beautiful. Ham on a biscuit, $2. REAL ham. From one pig. On a real biscuit, from a REAL...well, wherever biscuits come from. A large cup of REAL fresh cut fruit....$1. Coffee , etc. Grand total $9. That's for the both of us. Yes, we've all had ham, but I can't explain how damn good this was. I really should have given the gal a twenty and said "fill up this bag"

  With a full belly and a positive outlook, we charged on...it was a glorious day, and there was more crap to be bought. We chugged along, diggin' the views off the mountain and diggin' through junk that other people didn't find good enough to keep in their own houses. We both saw stuff that we hadn't seen, or hadn't wanted to see again, in years. If Ronco made it, we saw it.  I can't believe smoking was allowed, because if one person dropped a match, we would have had the worlds longest flash fire! Man, we were having fun. Mom has LOTS of new friends. At one point, she had her lawn chair, taking a rest while i crawled around in the dirt looking under tables for elusive Stradivarius' and maybe the jawbone of Woody Guthrie...she was asked 'how much for the sweet corn?'...she realized she was sitting by an unmanned table of sweet corn by the entrance of the sale....she was honest, and said she didn't work there...i told her she coulda helped finance this trip if she just lied a little! AND, she should charged the cars coming in...$4 in, $5 out!  Another guy started talking to her as if he knew her...saying how he knew she liked those kind of sales and didn't know she was coming down, etc...mom just listened...and he then said "you don't know who i am, do you?" and Ma said "No, I don't think so" and he said "I worked on your phone!" and she said "Do you live in Illinois?" and he said "Dang". Sorry, Charlie. 

   

     We chugged on like the Chatanooga Choo Choo, winding through some of the most beautiful country we've ever seen, where Mansions and tumble-down shacks seemed to play boy-girl-boy-girl with each other, and in between were horses, goats, pigs etc. I also came up with the idea to design refrigerators and washing machines that were INTENDED to be on the front porch. They have indoor/outdoor furniture, right? Why not appliances? A washer to match that '68 Ford in your lawn, a Fridge to match the couch on your porch...I'm onto something here.  On a strech further up in Tennessee, we saw a cement strip with a smattering of dealers set up, willy -nilly...we got out of the car and immediately, i heard what i knew was someone playing live music. What I thought would be some chump in a Garth Brooks shirt torturing the few yard salers with Toby Keith and Tim McGraw shite, I was found to be very, very wrong. As I walked up, I heard a beautiful sound. Two Old Boys playing the good stuff....amazingly. I ended up staying, and playing, for well over an hour and a half. I have to name check them, because my heart swelled when i heard them, and i'm going to post a little video of 'em here, too. Ed Frazier and Sanford Brewer were awe-inspiring, and i was the only one there listening. They were anything BUT hacks. These were seasoned pros that played the right stuff in the right way. If you know me well, you know I hate everything that I don't like, if you know what I'm saying, and I sure liked them. My ma walked up, after talking to some guy she referred to as "Goober" about his watermelons...(she said he had so few teeth he could gnaw an ear of corn through a picket fence!!!) She just leaned in and said "You know he (me) won't be leaving you alone for a while!" Ed was one bad-ass guitar player...and he was 73 years old, Sanford was 74....and they'd been playing together since GRADE SCHOOL!! They were both playing cheap guitars they were selling, and were trying to raise money to restore the county's first fire truck! I gave 'em a twenty after their very first song, just so they knew I wasn't goin' anywhere. We talked, mostly about the Louvin Bros. (Mine, and Ed's, very favorites!) and George Jones, Hank, etc. I played "Wedding Bells" with them, and Sanford said "I knew the man that wrote that song. He wasn't a very good musician, but he wrote that song!" Damn! I told them next time I'm playing in Tennessee, they're on the  bill, and I meant it!  When Ma finally dragged me away, kicking and crying,  there were numbers exchanges, pictures taken, and hugs all around! 

    We were gettin' tired, and headed on down the road...it was gettin' late and we were gonna find a room....driving through Crossville, Tenn., (population, like, 1.180 or something) I saw a music store. I swerved into a parking spot (i was the ONLY car on main street) I walked in and saw it. It was next to a '30's Gibson Banjo (he wanted 4 Grand for that!) I saw a '59 Gibson Melody Maker, and he wanted $699 for it. A very very fair price. So, naturally, I said "Will you take $600...cash...for it?"...the three heavy metal-ish lookin kids in there just stopped what they were doing , and froze.. like I said "Draw, Cowboy" or something like that....a tumbleweed rolled by...cue the Clint Eastwood music...the store owner just stared..i could hear the gears cranking in his noggin..another old gentleman said "ha...the Pause that Refreshes"...I think I was the only one that got the joke....and the store owner said "How about $625..it's got the original case and strap"...i said "sold"...I'll bet it was the fastest and easiest sale he had ever made. As he was writing me up, the other gentleman and his wife asked the question I had answered about a hundred times on this trip "Where y'all from?"..etc....extremely nice people. His sweet wife said she was going to pray for me and my mother, and was there anything special she should pray for? Feeling a little uneasy, and a little uncertain about my relationship and good standing with the man upstairs, I said "My Liver!" and she came back, lightning fast, with a quote from the bible (or maybe it was Mad Magazine) about the liver!!!  She even came out to the car and said hello to my mom, and said she was going to pray for us, and my liver....mom didn't know what the hell she was talking about...we said "thanks and toodle-oo" and drove on. I was a very happy camper.  As we pulled away, Ma asked me why she was going to pray for my liver...I just said "Oh, I don't know...you know how these folks are!" They really were super-sweet people. I was antsy and excited and I couldn't wait, so I pulled into a parking lot and called my extremely knowledgeable guitar-headed NY friend and told him of my minutes-old purchase...He said "You stole that guitar...does it have the big or small pick-up?" I said "big" and he said "That's a rare f*ckin' guitar" and I said "Ma, he said it's a rare f*ckin' guitar" and he said, on the other line "Did you just say that to your mom?"  I said "Yes". He went quiet. It was still a beautiful day, and we decided, after a few more stops...we were tuckered out and done. I asked Ma "you wanna head North?" and she just said "OK!".....What a great, memorable trip, and it really ain't over, not until i land at Laguardia, and smell the ass that is NYC! 

      So, with a sunburn and a Budweiser in hand, I bid y'all adieu and thank you eternally for the fun you've given us as an audience ....it really made it something special to be able to share this unique trip with you..I really wish there was a camera in the car...we just laughed and laughed and laughed. .There might be a few updates in the next few days, and definitely more pics and vids...oxoxo tom and mom