First Gig Of The Season

It was last Friday. I had to leave work a bit earlier than usual. The farmer who had hired us to play for his venison party at a rural golf course wanted us there a half hour before starting time. At least that was the message we got.

The car was packed with my instruments and everything was all set. I had taken care of that part by getting up a little early that morning and lugging the cases with the four reed instruments I play out to the garage before I showered.

There was a slight delay in the parking lot of the office building where I work as I set up the spreadsheet I use to keep track of my band mileage. There were conflicts earlier in the year with my son's hockey that prevented me from making the Mardis Gras gig and the ass job (as I like to call it).

Every Palm Sunday there is a church downtown that has a palm procession through the streets of Syracuse. We lead the procession, playing spirituals while the congregation parades behind singing along. Right behind us walks Ernie the donkey, the reason I refer to it as I do.

Last Friday, once I had the spreadsheet all set up, I put the car into drive and headed out. I was visualizing the routes I could take to get to the other side of the city then south to determine the quickest one. By the time I had turned left from the parking lot onto Fly Road (I like to tell people that I zip up fly road every day on my way to work), I had determined my preferred route before stopping at the traffic light on the corner of Fly and Kirkville Road.

All was smooth sailing until I turned off the Route 5 bypass and onto route 5, heading toward Elbridge. My turn onto Bennets Corners Road is only about 5 minutes on a normal day. Friday was no normal day. No sooner had I accelerated to 55 mph than I noticed taillights ahead and bumper-to-bumper slow-moving traffic. I switched the radio right away to find Tony Bombardo and the traffic report but Murphy's Law was in effect.

There is a restaurant on Route 5 about halfway between Camillus and Elbridge that is called the Inn Between. About the time I saw that approaching on my right, I decided that it may be wise to use their parking lot to turn around and head back to find an alternate route.

I lost a total of about 20 minutes when I doubled back to route 174 and found myself winding my way more or less in the direction I wanted to go. There was a pressing urge that made this whole experience a tad more unpleasant. Before I turned onto Route 5 to find the traffic snarl, I was thinking ahead to stopping on the corner of 5 and Bennets Corners to relieve myself at the stop and go on the corner. Since I was forced to take a detour, the urge grew to become a tad more than unpleasant.

It wasn't until after 174 connected with Bennets Corners that I found a convenient rural drive to pull into so I could get out of the car and relieve myself next to a tree large enough to shield what I was doing from the road. While on 174, Tony Bombardo finally came on the radio to tell me to avoid Bennets Corners Road because a car had rolled over there. There had been a police car blocking the way back toward that rolled car at the intersection or 174 and Bennets Corners.

I made it to the country club with about ten minutes to spare. That is not really enough time to set up all my instruments and the amp I use as a monitor, but I got enough ready so I could play when six o'clock rolled around. The rest got set up during solos by my band mates.

We played a longer first set than usual, mostly because the leader enjoys the first full band gig of the season more so because of the time that elapses between the last and the first. We do not get to play much during the winter months, ass job not withstanding.

It was good to be back together making music. It was good to interact with such talent once again. It was good to enhance my income as well. The venison was not too bad either.