ON THE ROAD WITH THE EVERHARTS
“Florida is a tropical state. What that means is
there’s lots of moisture, dew, rain, dampness, and muscle aches,
especially for an older person.” Bob & Sheila of the Smithsonian
Institution are ‘on the road’ in Florida. “We had a lovely day at the
Flamingo Island Flea Market,” Sheila piped up. “Talk about huge. We
saw some really large flea markets in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas,
but they were sort of dusty, run-down, dilapidated, and even difficult
to go to if there was any kind of dampness. Not so in Florida. We were
asked to perform on their weekly entertainment stage on Sunday. We were
surprised, the pay was good, there was a sizable audience, but nothing
compared to the size of the flea market itself. Imagine a long, very
wide building about two and a half blocks long. Spaces on both sides
and down the middle. Now double that. Whew, it is huge, and the
performance center is right in the middle of both these huge ‘indoor’
buildings. They had everything from ancient Greek coins to thongs not
even as big as a handkerchief.”
there’s lots of moisture, dew, rain, dampness, and muscle aches,
especially for an older person.” Bob & Sheila of the Smithsonian
Institution are ‘on the road’ in Florida. “We had a lovely day at the
Flamingo Island Flea Market,” Sheila piped up. “Talk about huge. We
saw some really large flea markets in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas,
but they were sort of dusty, run-down, dilapidated, and even difficult
to go to if there was any kind of dampness. Not so in Florida. We were
asked to perform on their weekly entertainment stage on Sunday. We were
surprised, the pay was good, there was a sizable audience, but nothing
compared to the size of the flea market itself. Imagine a long, very
wide building about two and a half blocks long. Spaces on both sides
and down the middle. Now double that. Whew, it is huge, and the
performance center is right in the middle of both these huge ‘indoor’
buildings. They had everything from ancient Greek coins to thongs not
even as big as a handkerchief.”
“We had a lot of fun performing at the Flamingo Flea
Market,” Bob added, “they provided the sound, paid us well, and even had
a really nice buffet back stage for all the performers. The show was
from Noon to four, and we were on from 3:15pm to 4pm, so it was a very
nice experience for us. The next day was December 31st, and we had a
gig playing at the Orange Grove RV Park. This is a large park in Fort
Myers, and actually in an orange grove. The little tree at our
park-site had quite a few oranges on, but they were pretty sour. The
‘new’ orange is a very sweet one called honey-bell. It was the gig that
was so difficult. We’re definitely not a dance band, never have been,
and the New Year’s Eve program called for a huge pot-luck, some ‘fun’
with the park denizens, and then us for an hour. We were doing just fine
until a very loud lady stood up and yelled, “can’t you play anything
new?” I said since we were hired to perform the “Traveling Museum of
Music” as proposed by the Smithsonian, there wouldn’t be much ‘new’
music. As Sheila said, this was gig from hell number two. The very
loud lady sat back down, but she had about a dozen co-horts with her.
They never stopped making noise until we were finished. The Activities
Director was so angry, even though they paid us well for the New Year
Gig, he found a ‘tip’ jar, and went to the loud woman, demanding she put
in or stay out of the clubhouse, we would up with several more hundred
dollars before the night was through.”
Market,” Bob added, “they provided the sound, paid us well, and even had
a really nice buffet back stage for all the performers. The show was
from Noon to four, and we were on from 3:15pm to 4pm, so it was a very
nice experience for us. The next day was December 31st, and we had a
gig playing at the Orange Grove RV Park. This is a large park in Fort
Myers, and actually in an orange grove. The little tree at our
park-site had quite a few oranges on, but they were pretty sour. The
‘new’ orange is a very sweet one called honey-bell. It was the gig that
was so difficult. We’re definitely not a dance band, never have been,
and the New Year’s Eve program called for a huge pot-luck, some ‘fun’
with the park denizens, and then us for an hour. We were doing just fine
until a very loud lady stood up and yelled, “can’t you play anything
new?” I said since we were hired to perform the “Traveling Museum of
Music” as proposed by the Smithsonian, there wouldn’t be much ‘new’
music. As Sheila said, this was gig from hell number two. The very
loud lady sat back down, but she had about a dozen co-horts with her.
They never stopped making noise until we were finished. The Activities
Director was so angry, even though they paid us well for the New Year
Gig, he found a ‘tip’ jar, and went to the loud woman, demanding she put
in or stay out of the clubhouse, we would up with several more hundred
dollars before the night was through.”
“New Year’s Eve was really loud outside the gates of
where we were at,” Bobbie Lhea added. “Fireworks everywhere. Then dad
said, wait a minute, that sounded like a gun. And sure enough, there
were lots of guns being fired. In the next day’s newspaper, there were
lots of people complaining about it, saying those bullets they shot in
the sky, falls down somewhere, and they didn’t want them smashing
through their roof or their head. Dad managed to get us a budget lunch
at his favorite spot, Panera Bread. He won’t let us order drinks, so I
get a glass of ice water with lemon in it, and by adding a little sugar,
I had a nice lemonade.”
where we were at,” Bobbie Lhea added. “Fireworks everywhere. Then dad
said, wait a minute, that sounded like a gun. And sure enough, there
were lots of guns being fired. In the next day’s newspaper, there were
lots of people complaining about it, saying those bullets they shot in
the sky, falls down somewhere, and they didn’t want them smashing
through their roof or their head. Dad managed to get us a budget lunch
at his favorite spot, Panera Bread. He won’t let us order drinks, so I
get a glass of ice water with lemon in it, and by adding a little sugar,
I had a nice lemonade.”