And then there suddenly appeared before me.....

Last night Ed and I went to see Guys and Dolls in San Jose and decided to make it a real "date" night and try a new restaurant in the area. It was a hit! Great food, nice atmosphere, and wonderful service. Plus there was a husband-wife team who played piano and sang - mostly old standards. Very enjoyable.

Of course, it reminded me of an episode when I was growing up. There was a restaurant near our house in Tucson called The Bistro. Very nice white tablecloth place. My parents loved to eat out and we went out as a family often. This particular evening was one of my teen birthdays so they got a babysitter for my sister and Mom and Dad took me to a fancy place. I don't think I even spilled anything on the white tablecloth!

For our musical enjoyment, the restaurant had a roving accordian player. Not sure what they were thinking when they did this - it wasn't even an Italian restaurant. Now accordians did have a place in my family. My cousins both had to take accordian lessons when they were young. Yes, we were true Italians! My cousin, Ken, was a one-hit wonder with his rousing rendition of Mona Lisa. We were living in Dayton, Ohio at the time and Ken and his family were in Chicago. He and I were somewhere between 7 and 10 at the time. My aunt would call us from Chicago - long distance - so we could hear Ken play Mona Lisa and his younger brother play Cielito Lindo (which is a Mexican song so, again, I have no clue). As they got better at their "songs" we would get phone calls with updated recitals. It's still a bit of a family joke.

But, back to The Bistro. So, here was this guy, slightly disheveled, overweight, Buddy Holly glasses, sweating, playing his heart out with this 200 lb accordian hanging from his neck walking through the restaurant. The first song he played was Blue Moon. Now, this was a good thing because it's one of the three songs that my dad and I would play in tandem on our piano. So we enjoyed it. Then the accordian player stopped at the table next to us and asked if they had a request. They did. But he said, "Oh, sorry, I don't know that one." And again broke into another rendition of Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone.....

Came to our table, asked for a request, we gave him a song title which, surprisingly, he said he didn't know! Blue Moon, you knew just what I was there for.........

This happened at several more tables until everyone was becoming either amused or annoyed - probably depending on how much wine had been drunk.

And still the chords came through: Blue Moon, now I'm no longer alone.....

Note to restaurant owners: a) don't hire accordian players, b) ban Blue Moon, c) check the repetoire