Big Pink – 5

March 17, 2010

I’mm not sure of the route we took but suffice it to say it was a few hours drive. That part of the trip was pretty uneventful unless one considers the sheer volume and tones of so many people, especially all the happy children along for the rolling Big Pink touring experience.

The sound although not really deafening was like you’d imagine with that much humanity loaded into one space; several different groups all talking at various volumes and mostly all at once. It was like there was a big family reunion but with all of it taking place inside a confined area of floor and windows space; no escape while moving.

Unlike the modern buses of any period, legally having to be equipped for human emergencies such as too much or even just a little liquid consumption, the driver was asked to pull over someplace; or more times than imaginable any place to relieve whatever had to be relieved quickly when many little people were crammed in the space.

Needless to say, I can’t tell you how many times this happened but I will tell you that one of those stops had to be for a going quickly fat to flat tire. Yes, I’mm a frayed so. The soon to be emergency was avoided at the very last minute. The last minute because we were almost arriving at our final gig destination; almost but not quite there.

I can remember this part of the story like it was yesterday, it was so cool. We were within the perimeter of the town of Davis. Not even the outskirts really but pretty close to where we had to check in for the festival. Unfortunately one of Big Pink’s rolling feet just couldn’t wait another turn before everyone heard the rhythmical hiss; air escaping.

Even worse, she was losing air faster than a broken balloon at a well attended kindergartener’s birthday party. Too many more revolutions and Big Pink’s foot would be rubbing its metal on asphalt. The immediate guess was that it must have been something one of Big Pink’s feet had grabbed without noticing it would in fact stick to its insides thereby causing the quick loss of fat and full to thin and empty

Without a doubt this is where the positives of these kinds of experiences occur and something good always comes of it. Just ahead was one of the normal gas stations that used to be plentiful in those days. We all could see its big opened garage doors on the right as we rolled to a stop slightly in front of and to the left of them; just in time for Big Pink’s foot to be flatter than a pan cake. Lucky us. We stopped.

Not a facetious term in this instance. We really were lucky; on several counts. One was that the flat didn’t happen in the middle of the road or highway, too far away from anywhere to get it fixed for that madder. Limping on the side of a busy road wouldn’t be any fun.

Nope, not this day; for some reason we had a lot more good on our sighed. This, even more evident when I exited the bus to find the man in charge of the gas station. I had the pick of five men who gathered in front of the big opened door to see what would exit from the circus.

With a smile bigger than Soupy Sales I walked up to the grinning gentlemen and said something like, “Say guys, luckily for us we just got a flat tire. As you can see from all the humanity hanging out the windows, not to mention the colourful display of our name on the side of ‘ol Big Pink there, we’re a little choir from a few hours away. We’ve got a gig that starts not too long, time wise from now. As you can see we’re in need of your kind assistance; whatcha think?”

One of the gentlemen who I gathered was the General in charge pointed to two of his underlings and like the Godfather himself, pointed to the bus full of happy spirits without using any vocal accompaniment. The two anointed one’s then walked briskly to Big Pink’s pan cake and asked mme to ask everyone to exit the bus.

Little did they know that the exercise in itself was more than a big deal. They were sure it was a necessary one. I walked to the opened doors and passed that information to the General of the choir; big M.

After a longer than usual preamble of precautionary measures the choir General then passed the pleas exit information to the horde on the bus. The excited exit movements began as everyone, not all at the same time mmined you, got up from their comfortable rug seats. Kids with balloons and stained candy faces were told to leave the balloons or potentially lose them to the heavens. Hold mom’s hands and walk.

The adult passengers grabbed the hands of those too small to walk the streets or wander alone. Most of this was in as orderly a fashion as anyone can imagine a circus of this nature and size could accomplish. In tow were the one by one by too’s, some with sticky hands of chocolate or holding dolls, toys and a few with balloons exited en mass; vocalisations of everything were the kiddies added attraction.

As everyone d-bussed the two greasy clothed mechanics about to attack the flat tire looked well amused. The other three gentlemen watched the circus parade of tiny tykes ‘n moms find a place to move out of the way. They marched like gaggles of geese or ducks following the leader to a safe distance while asking if this were a food source.

As it happened a large grassy area was right next to the station. The Big Pink crowd sat and amused themselves while the tire was being worked on by the tire fixing professionals. Grunts and groans commenced. The electrical tools attachments couldn’t stretch that far so the distraught mechanic’s had to manually continue by hand.

Kindly like soldiers following the orders of the gas station General the two strained with determination. Big Pink’s history was evident when the rusted nuts of the rusted bolts were harder to unwind than a grist mill not oiled since the Middle Ages. This was a time for no mere mortals when the gas General called out the heavy artillery. Still inside the station was Big Bernie. The right man with the right tool.

Big Bernie towered over as well as muscle powered over all his compatriots including the General. All Big Bernie had to do was to untwist each nut that wouldn’t; the rest of the job was a piece of cake for the other two. Untwist he did and then left the rest of the unscrewing to the other two soldiers. The two privates quickly proceeded with the rest of the job taking Big Pink’s shoe off entirely from there on with no problem.

In the meantime Mr. General expressed his professional opinion by saying he definitely had no replacement. When the privates take off the tire they’ll have to bring it into the fix area to see if the tire can be repaired right then and there or we were, using his knowledgeable expression, ‘shit outta luck.’” Well, that wouldn’t be good. Let’s hope for the best, eh?” was mmy response. He smiled warily.

Well, lucky us. When the privates brought the sad faced tired in to be checked in the dipping water challenge, they found a hole no bigger than a 16 penny nail. When one considers the size of the rubberised foot compared to one of those tiny imports, it was minimal in deed.

Mr. General expressed although it looked like it’s past the time of a new shoe, Big Pink’s foot can be repaired. He asked if we’d like them to do that. I responded with no thank you would you please return it to its proper place and we’ll continue driving to Hawaii. He smiled at mmy facetious reply after which I said yes, please; we’d appreciate it.

The kind sounding man then pointed to one other associate who was to do that job as well as to pick another one of his friendly assistants to engage in the healing and repair. As I watched for a short while Mr. General and I had a nice conversation about the weather. He was also very inquisitive as to whom we were and what exactly were we doing in his town. Where did we come from and how long did we exist.

I responded with the initial opening of introduction information and expanded upon that. He was smiling the whole time while expressing how much fun the whole crowd seemed to be having in this what could have been a sad experience. I told him that it’s a Gospel Choir pal, so we try not to let little things like this bother us; besides that we’re all on our first trip/gig as somewhat of a family. As you can see, we’re having a circus of a time. The man was very funny and friendly.

After the twenty minutes or so it took from the water challenge part, the tire was fixed in short order. The boys of repair set Big Pink’s foot back in place; we were ready to roll once more. I walked outside to pass that information to the choir Mistress who passed it on to everyone else.

At that point like the circus exiting, the same circus in another procession of giggling vocalists and their charges even quicker, reentered Big Pink. We were ready to roll. One last step was to pay the General and his rubber repair platoon for a job well done.

I walked up to the General who was inside the business part of his station. He was pushing so many buttons on his cash register that the ringing reminded mme of sounds one may hear in a casino when a jackpot occurs. I was beginning to get frightened. He unrolled the long paper receipt and presented the end in its totality. I grimaced.

When I looked at the long column of numbers I just couldn’t figure it out. I said to him that after all these numbers what you have at the end here is not a total. If there’s an end number then for the life of mme I can’t see it. He asked mme what in fact did I see at the end.

I said, “Not to be funny or anything here Mr. General, but all I see at the end here is a bunch of zeros.” He said, “That’s correct son, the price is zero, nada, nothing; you and your nice choir owe us nothing.” I said, ‘Nothing? Nothing? You mean you did all that hard work, not to mention bringing in the overpowering power guy, and you’re not going to charge us?” He said, “That’s right son; have a nice concert; you’re a nice group of people; our little gift to you.”

Needless to say, I was very surprised by saying something pretty close to or exactly like: Whoa; that’s unbelievably kind of you; WOW, what a great gift!! Thank you; thank you so much; thank you very much Sir! The guy had a big smile, shook mmy hand vigorously when I said, “So I guess we’re on our way then; thanks again.” He said, “You’re very welcome, maybe you’ll come back and see us again.

At this point with a smile bigger than Christmas I ran out to the bus and told everyone what had just happened. They all yelled with joy. One right after the other immediately made a suggestion that the choir director agreed upon. Everyone in agreement wanted to get out of the bus and sing a song to the station General and his crew of cool.

Like the circus exit and reentrance before, everyone exited the bus while I went back into the station to summon the entire cadre of cool for a personal performance of our choir. When approaching Mr. General with this, he quickly gathered his men. They all dropped their tools while at the same time Miss Choir mistress arranged everyone in a semi circle, kids with balloons and still candy smudged faces.

They discussed what would be the perfect song for this most special of occasions. The men gathered approximately fifteen feet in front of the choir about to give a personal one time performance; acappella at that. Mistress Choir director quieted everyone after which she asked the whole group to say THANK YOU in unison. They did while the kids screamed, everyone applauding the men who stood before them in the standing ovation that lasted well over a minute.

Two songs were decided upon in the bus. If I’mm not mistaken it was both we’ve performed many times before and will during the time of our performance of the festival. ‘Wings,’ lead singer was Carol. Her name I remember like most of the singers. She chose a song she loved to sing. It was basically a ballad that presented all the good qualities of each separate section of the backing tones of the choir as well as her angelic voice. It was a powerfully moving song and lyrics.

The song that followed was, “Smiling Makes Your Dimples Grow.” It was a happy faster paced song that included our dancers who also did their routine for the tiny audience and one quite appropriate for the time. Positives produce positives. After the short performance Mr. General and his crew of cool applauded generously and with whistles.

Every one of the adults went to touch and shake the hands of every crew member of cool. Like the way the loading and exiting of the bus beforehand, this ending was the same. The entire choir and their charges entered the bus for the last time in an orderly fashion with the happiest expressions on their faces, with and without candy smudges.

As we slowly pulled out of the gas station, the crew stood in line. They waved goodbye to all the kids with balloons that hung out every window and waved so long back while screaming thank you’s until out of hearing distance. The concert went the same way. The great feeling continued the rest of the weekend through to the way home and the departure at the original place it began; from Big Pink.
“Smiling Makes Your Dimples Grow.”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone