TheBanyanTree: Evening at Fat Jack's

[Mike Pingleton]

It started out as a typical Saturday morning but then a hose broke inside the 
washer, dropping a full tub of water all over the basement floor.  Just as I 
got the mess cleaned up, and all of the dirty laundry into baskets for a trip 
to the laundromat, Daughter Number Two dropped by, hemming and hawing.  Uh, 
Dad, I need a little help making my car payment this month.  When is it due?  
Uh, Monday.

But that's all right.  That's okay, because Daughter Number Three is leaving  
for a sleepover/birthday party, and Nell and I are heading to Bloomington at 
four o'clock.  The Bogside Zukes are playing at Fat Jack's.  No worries this 
evening!

The afternoon is unseasonably warm, so it's shorts, t-shirt and sandals for me 
and capris pants and a sleeveless blouse for Nell.  This is already a cause 
for celebration; no jackets to drag along, no weather to consider.  We leave 
town and leave our troubles behind on a fifty minute drive to 
Bloomington-Normal.

Fat Jack's is downtown, and we get there as the band is unloading equipment 
from their vehicle.  Andrew and Gayle are already there, holding our favorite 
table in the corner; Crispy will join us later.  The great thing about Fat 
Jack's is that the large front windows open inward; I take the corner seat, 
so I can bask in the warmth of the setting sun, enjoy my pipe and a pint of 
something sudsy.  I'm almost outside practically.

The Zukes have a full crew this evening.  Acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiddle, 
electric bass and drums.  They start right in at ten after five, opening with 
Nancy Whiskey:

	whiskey, whiskey Nancy Whiskey
	whiskey whiskey Nancy-O

Nell and Gayle are teetotaling this evening; Andrew and I settle on pints of 
Wild Irish Rogue, dark and smooth.  A warm breeze is coming in the window; 
the sun is just disappearing behind the chocolatier's building across the 
street.  The Zukes are working through a set of slip-jigs and reels as the 
pub slowly fills.  We order a pizza from Lucca's around the corner;  Andrew 
and I order another pint.  There's bachelorette party in the back room; a 
number of young women bearing mysterious packages head that way in twos and 
threes.  The Zukes start in on Mari Mac, a Scottish tongue-twister of a tune 
with a tempo that accelerates:

	Mari Mac's mother's making Mari Mac marry me
	My mother's making me marry Mari Mac
	Gonna marry Mari for my Mari's taking care of me
	We'll all be feeling merry when I marry Mari Mac

A group of middle-aged women on a pub-crawl arrive, each of them sporting a 
loud hawaiian shirt.  Fat Jack's is not their first stop - they're already 
whooping it up, and they like the music.  The Zukes respond by launching into 
Waxie's Dargle - it's audience participation on this one:

	Zukes:  What'll ye have?
	Crowd:  I'll have pint!
	Zukes:  I'll have a pint with you, sir.  And if one of us doesn't order we'll
	be thrown out of the boozer

Now they have the crowd's attention.  It looks like a contingent of Zuke 
family and friends have arrived; the band takes a break and mingles with the 
crowd.  Our pizza arrives, along with others and one for the band; everyone 
in the place is eating pizza.  Crispy arrives, sans husband John who is 
visiting his father.  Another pint?  Certainly.

The Zukes crank it up again, giving us Youngest Daughter and the Temperance 
Reel, then Lukey's Boat, an old Canadian folk tune:

	Lukey's boat is painted green, aha, me boys
	Lukey's boat is painted green, it's the prettiest boat that you've ever seen
	Aha, me boys, a riddle I day

What washing machine?  What car payment?  What is it about a little folk tune 
in 8/8 time that drops your troubles overboard?  What is it about a fiddle 
and a mandolin and a guitar that wipes all care from your brow?  I watch the 
Zukes play and they are having a helluva time - they'd have fun if the pub 
were empty.  To play, to play is the thing, to paraphrase the Immortal Bard.

We hear Mari Mac one more time to appease a late-comer.  We're not complaining 
and sing along as best we can keep up.  A medley closes out the set - 
Limerick Rake, and Rabbit in the Pea Patch, a real crowd-pleaser.  "We're the 
Bogside Zukes - thanks for coming!"  Awww, groans the crowd.  The band gives 
an a capella rendition of the Irish Prayer:

	May the road rise up to greet you
	may the wind be ever at your back
	may the sun shine warm upon you
        may the rains fall softly on your fields
	and until we meet again
	may God hold you in the palm of His hand

and then close it all down finally with the Pogue's Streams of Whiskey:

	going, I am going
	any which way the wind may be blowing
	going, I am going 
	where the streams of whiskey are flowing

and it's over.  The Zukes pack up gear and visit with their friends.  I ask 
Matt, the guitarist, if they have any more CD's left - I want to buy a couple 
for some friends.  Matt graciously gives me two copies and thanks me for 
coming to see them again.  Oh, the Champaign fan club will come back again, I 
assure him.  I'm grinning ear to ear!

We hang around for a while, finishing our last pints while the younger college 
crowd starts to wander in.  Nine o'clock, and it's time for us old fogeys to 
head for home.  Nell drives home, and I'm content to sit back and recall a 
very pleasant evening.  Later, as I drift off to sleep, I've still got the 
night's music running through my sleepy head...

	going, I am going,
	any which way the wind may be blowing...