MY LONELIEST CHRISTMAS

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

I wasn’t totally alone on Christmas Day 48 years ago, but the fact that I was about 4000 miles from home and had never spent Christmas away from my family before made me feel extremely lonely. The next year I would miss a Christmas with my family would be 1999. This was the only White Christmas in my memory, as my partner and I were in Anchorage, Alaska from the 2nd week of December until the first week of January.

So how the hell did that happen? Admittedly, we had a manager who saw the opportunity to work steadily as good for us, but it didn’t quite work out that way. He was dealing with a super sleaze element, a totally crooked booker, let’s call him Bill because that was his name, based in Seattle who treated musicians like cattle. The club we were booked at was called The Fancy Moose, such a romantic name, which had acts come through for four to ten weeks at a time. Thank god our manager had only agreed to four weeks. But one thing he didn’t agree on that came up after we’d already signed a contract, was the club had us working from 9:30 to 3:00 AM on weeknights, and 9:30 to 4:30 on weekends! (The only hours liquor couldn’t be sold was 5:00 to 7:00 AM)

We did have a backup band that we hoped could make up some of the slack by opening each set with a few tunes to pad each set out, but that idea lasted one night, as we discovered that without us on stage with them, they were not very good. Plus their choices of songs were obscure album cuts by The Grateful Dead and other hippie rock bands that wouldn’t connect with Alaskan audiences. The club showed a bit of mercy by cutting back an hour on each night, but under no circumstances were the band allowed to take the stage without us.

Because it was winter and we were in Alaska, it was the opposite of Land of the Midnight Sun. The sun would rise about 10:30, kiss the horizon for a few hours, then set at about 2:30. There were days I slept completely through the entire “daytime.” The one merciful thing for us was that it was an unusually warm winter for Alaska, in that it never got below zero (Fahrenheit, meaning that zero would be nearly 18 below on Celsius scale), and one day actually got as high as 40, with icicles melting everywhere.

Oh yes, and the lodging the club provided was single rooms with one lamp that sported a 25 watt bulb. My partner got industrious and not only bought higher voltage lights but also rented a television. TV was amusing at that time, as the network affiliated stations didn’t have the facilities back then to broadcast shows until the video tapes arrived, which meant that TV shows like Andy Williams Christmas special aired on December 28. I did work Anchorage again in 2002 and they seemed to have that detail sorted out.

How were the people/audiences? For being so far removed from most of US cultural influences, they mostly appreciated what we had to offer. They were very much into guns and vigilanteism, though. On our first day, we met with the club manager in his office, and before any words were spoken, he pulled out his gun and laid it on his desk. It wasn’t meant to be a threat, but it wasn’t exactly a warm welcome either. Turns out everybody packed guns, but the frontier spirit went even further than that, as a week before we arrived, there had been a stabbing in the club, but the victim had wounds scattered about his body, so the authorities couldn’t hold anyone. It was as though the mood was, “Oh boy, a stabbing! Let me join in!” The manager pointed out blood stains that hadn’t been completely cleaned up yet. And this was where we’d be spending Christmas?

Actually, we didn’t work on Christmas Eve and New Years’ Day, small consolation. We were terribly missing California, our families, and all the trimmings of any holiday celebration, instead being cold and lonely. The only person we were able to talk to on Christmas Day was our manager, who took time away from his wife and daughters to see how we were doing. My partner was crying by the time the conversation was over.

Many nights were boring and/or taxing, but for some reason New Years Eve was surprisingly fun and the club was packed. Our hopes for any momentum bringing people in again for our final week were dashed by about January 2nd. Crowds were dismal for every night except the final Saturday, where the bartenders decided they hadn’t seen me really drunk yet, so they made me a cocktail called a Lighthouse, which mixed Tequila with 151 Rum. I got ridiculously sick and couldn’t drink or even smell tequila again for many years.

We finished the gig around the 6th or 7th, and looking forward to getting the hell out of there and just chilling for the next few weeks, but Wonderful Bill in Seattle had one more trick up his sleeve. Even though the contract called for airfare to be paid from Seattle to Anchorage, he decided that we didn’t satisfy the contract because we played fewer hours than contracted for, and was deciding to not send us the money for airfare. If we wanted to challenge breach of contract, we would have had to stay in Alaska and pay for our own lodging and attorney fees. Thankfully the club agreed to front the money for the airfare. As a final capper, our flight was leaving on a Monday night where the temperature was dropping below zero, and earlier that day I managed to lose my gloves. Trying to drive a car with the steering wheel sticking to your hands is no fun!

I can laugh at the situation now, but I didn’t feel particularly funny 48 years ago, when I was a mere 23 years old. Happily, I’m spending a sedate Christmas with Maggie and her family. Hope you all are spending the holidays with those you love. All the best to you!

December 24th, 2021



Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.