The Rooster Club

In the third or fourth grade I attended IW Evans Elementary in Bonham and my sister across the street at LH Rather Middle school. We would meet at Simpson Park everyday after school let out. It was a large park across the street from both our schools. After I caught up with her (her school let out before mine) we'd walk the mile or so home.

I knew the way home, but I guess I wasn't confident or something. My sister didn't show up one day and I waited and waited. Where the Hell was she? At some point a police car pulled into the Town and Country convenience store across the street from Simpson Park. I went over and talked to the officer. I told him the situation, my sister walks me home because my parents work and cannot come and pick me up. He asked where my mom worked and I told her it was at the Rooster Club.

The Rooster Club was a bar in town. Fannin County is a dry county. The lone liquor store was miles away from Bonham in the shit town of Ladonia. I guess it got grandfathered in or political donations allowed it to operate? It's purely speculative on my part. There were no traditional taverns in town, just clubs. There was some asinine rule permitting the sell of alcohol provided it was a club type situation with paid dues annually. As far as I know there were three places that qualified: the VFW, the American Legion, and the Rooster Club.

My mom worked there maybe two years before she moved on to the American Legion. I remember another bartender that worked there named Fran. She had a son a year older than me named Jeffrey. We'd hang out together at the club. Maybe play pool and drink a concoction he created. If we went to the bar and asked for a Jeffrey Special it meant mixing coke with sprite. It sounds horrible. Kids at a bar. And really, it was. But our parents did what they could, we weren't old enough to leave at home all the time, mom worked there and dad wanted to unwind a little every day and have a couple drinks. It wasn't ideal but we weren't witnessing bar fights or drunken profanity laced tirades.

When not playing pool I'd play with the dominoes at the tables. I used them like building blocks creating forts and towers. My hands always smelled and tasted like salt. Table salt was used to sprinkle on the table to make shuffling the dominoes easier. My eyes would often burn and be watery when the place was crowded and smoke filled the room. This would usually happen at pool tournaments where my dad was a frequent participant.

The place, being a Texas bar, was constantly bellowing country music from the 25 cent jukebox. I can't even imagine how many times I heard such classics as “I wanna Bop with you Baby” by Don Seals, “Driving my Life Away” and “I love the Rainy Night” by Eddie Rabbit, "18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses” by Kathy Mattea or “Mama He's Crazy” by the Judds. Those songs will forever be seared in my subconscious. To this day I randomly hum the chorus to “Mama He's Crazy” or might involuntarily think to myself,

Well the midnight headlights blind you on a rainy night, Steep grade up ahead, slow me down, makin' no time,But I got to keep rollin', Those windshield wipers slappin' out a tempo,Keepin' perfect rhythm with the song on the radio,But I got to keep rollin'

I'm sure my mom was embarrassed to have the police drop off her latchkey kid at the bar where she works. I'm sure my sister got in deep trouble. I didn't think anything of it. There wasn't anything wrong with the place to me. It was the Rooster Club! It's just where my mom worked. Yes, I grew up in a bar as a kid. I was exposed to drunks and a cloud of disgusting cigarette smoke. But my parents did what they could to bring us up. To put food on the table. No kid should be exposed to that stuff but I was, and I think I'm okay. There are no families that are able to be ideal in every way and some have to be creative to make it work. My parents worked hard and I never doubted their love for us. We had rough times certainly, and there were struggles, but I survived childhood. Things could have been better, but they weren't. I think I'm oddly better for it though.

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Me and my dad before mom worked at the Rooster Club. Maybe in Germany?  1985

If I were to pick a song to be the soundtrack of this post it would be...

just cause i'm really feelin' this song right now and it's obscenely underrated.