Following the Wind

A lot of people don't understand what a club DJ does. There are a lot of club DJ's who don't either. They play the music they like, in today's day and age on a laptop computer with a DJ software program instead of records or CD's, and they set up the queue so they don't have to do much. They don't like requests for special songs because that means they have to actually work a little.

What a successful DJ plays depends mostly upon his crowd. People tend to like the music they grew up with. If I'm playing for a crowd of older people, say at a retirement party or a wedding anniversary, I'll be playing music from the era of most of the attendees. I'll play requests for newer music as well, but mostly I'll stay with the older stuff. If I'm playing for a crowd of twenty-somethings in a club, I'll be playing the latest hip-hop and pop music. As a result, I have a pretty extensive library of music.

Country/western clubs are a different breed all their own. Most country/western clubs have at least a small dance floor for the line dancers and slow dancers. The music I play in those clubs ranges from old 50's country/western to modern pop and everything in between. Most will be music that somebody choreographed a line dance to, hence the wide range. About every fourth song, I'll play something slow. Most pretend cowboys don't line dance, but they do like a nice soft woman pressed up against them.

That Saturday night in August, 2009, I was playing music for The Silver Stetson, a country/western bar that had hired me after they fired the last DJ. He'd been letting his laptop play the music while he was busy entertaining some of the young girls in a back room of the bar. One of the girls claimed he'd gone farther than she wanted and threatened to sue the bar, so the owners rid themselves of Troy.

The Silver Stetson was a pretty upscale club as country/western bars go. They had an actual dress code -- guys had to wear shirts, and couldn't wear backwards ball caps, spurs, or gangster-style clothing. The dress code for girls was pretty loose and designed to let them dress in a way that would attract guys to the club. Basically, they couldn't be showing bare nipples and if they wore a dress or really short shorts, they had to have on panties of some sort. The club checked ID's and had bouncers walking the floor to stop any disagreements before they turned into fights. It was a safe place to kick back, have a few beers and enjoy the music and the dancers.

It was about one in the morning when she walked up to my DJ booth. That wouldn't normally have been unusual. Girls always came up to my booth to request a favorite song. There were a few I think just came up to talk to me. I'm no prize catch and I was old enough to be a father to most of them, but they'd come up, smile seductively and flirt for a while before requesting their song. It was fun to play along, but they were way too young for me. I was tempted by a couple, but I didn't want to end up like Troy so I never indulged those fantasies.

This was no girl by a long shot, and I wondered why she was even in The Silver Stetson. Judging by the lines in her face, she'd left her forties behind by several years. We did get some older people at The Silver Stetson, but they came early and left about ten before the younger crowd finally got there.

She was a blonde that had probably caught a lot of eyes when she was younger. She was still pretty, but with that mature beauty that comes with age rather than the fresh beauty of youth. Her body, what I could make out of it under her check shirt and snug jeans looked the same. She had nice breasts, waist maybe a little thicker than a young girl's but not fat, and wide, sensuous hips.

When she smiled up at me, her eyes sort of sparkled a little, or maybe that was the lights from the dance floor. All I know is her face was captivating when she smiled.

"Hi", she said. "Would you have 'Proud Mary' up there somewhere, the Creedence Clearwater Revival one?"

As a matter of fact, I did. Like I said before, people usually like the music they grew up with, and in the past I'd done a lot of high school reunions, Legion Halls, and other venues where people growing up in the sixties were the bulk of the crowd. I kept some of the sixties and seventies songs just for them. CCR was always a favorite band, so I had several of their albums.

"I think I might have. Give me a minute to find it."

She kept smiling while I searched my song library. I know she was smiling because I kept looking at her and that made my search take longer. Finally, I found it and added it to the queue.

"Found it. It'll play once this song finishes."

"Thanks", she said, and then walked back to a table. I'd been right about her hips. Each step was pure seduction. I was surprised she was sitting alone. In my experience, most women who looked as good as she did would be with a guy or at least with another group of women. I didn't see any guys walking up to talk either, but that would have been because of her age. Most of our guys, even the ones in their thirties and forties, are looking for young girls and the younger the better for some reason.

When "Proud Mary" began to play over the speakers, the three girls on the floor who'd been line dancing looked at each other, shrugged, and then huddled for a second to decide if they could dance to it. I had to smile. I'd bet none of them had been even thought about, let alone born when CCR recorded it. They did find a dance that worked though, and were soon strutting their stuff. I looked over at the woman who'd requested it. She was sitting on her stool, but her foot was tapping away and she was mouthing the words.

I got a bunch of requests about then and didn't have a chance to do much except find music and queue it up. When I finally was able to look over at her table, she was gone.

The next Saturday night I spotted her when she came in. It was about midnight and a few tables were starting to clear so she was able to find a vacant one. Her table that night was a little closer to my booth, and when she saw me looking at her, she smiled that smile and waved.

Sally, one of the waitresses, hustled over to take her drink order. They talked for a while after Sally brought her drink.

Part of a DJ's job is to stay sober, so The Silver Stetson furnished me with all the club soda I wanted. Sally was pretty good about watching my glass and bringing me a fresh one when that one got low. About ten minutes later, she sat a new glass in front of me and then giggled.

"You have an admirer. Did you know that?"

"No, I guess not. Who is it?"

"She's that older woman at the table over there. She wanted to know your name and some other stuff."

I turned away to start the next queued song, then turned back to Sally.

"What'd you tell her?"

"I told her you're Jerry and you're not married. I don't know how old you are, so I guessed at about forty."

"I'm forty-three, so you were close. Did she ask anything else?"

"Nope, but I think she has a thing for you though."

"Why would you think that?"

"Well, she got this look on her face when she asked me. You probably wouldn't have seen it, but another woman would. She definitely likes you."

I grinned.

"So, does that mean you're jealous?"

Sally grinned back.

"Oh, hell no. I have enough to take care of with Billy. I don't need two men. Besides, I'm twenty-six. You're almost old enough to be my dad. Might be fun, but it wouldn't feel right."

It was about one again when the woman walked up to my booth. She smiled that captivating smile and asked if I had "Bad Moon Rising", by CCR.

Three minutes later, she was sitting at her table tapping her foot as the music flowed from the speakers.

By two, all the dancers had left and the rest of the crowd was just talking. I knew the subject of all the conversations. Each guy was trying to convince the girl he was with to go home with him or take him to her place. Usually he struck out and went back to the bar for another beer.

I'd played that game at one time myself. After a while, I learned that being half-drunk didn't exactly win me points with sober women. When I started staying sober, I figured out the half-drunk girls were easier, but a half-drunk girl sometimes went to sleep on me before we could do anything, so that didn't lead anywhere either. That's when I started my DJ business as a weekend job.

I'd found my first and only wife as a DJ, but it didn't turn out well at all. After two years, she decided sitting at an empty table every Friday and Saturday night while I played music wasn't much fun. The divorce wasn't the knock-down-drag-out fight some of them are. We both knew it was over and there wasn't much to split up, so we just split everything down the middle.

Anyway, I was setting up the next song when she walked up to the booth again and smiled at me.

"Could you play 'Proud Mary' for me again?"

It didn't take as long to find it this time, but I made it take as long. I just liked having her there and smiling at me. When I said it would play in about three minutes, she thanked me and walked back to her table.

It was the same the next Saturday night, except the song she wanted first was "Born On The Bayou". I queued it up and she walked back to her table.

She surprised me a little when the song started to play. Before, she'd always just sat there tapping her foot and sometimes mouthing the words. This time, she got up, looked at the three young girls starting a line dance to the music, and then slowly walked onto the dance floor. What followed had most of the guys left in the bar looking.

I don't think she was trying to be erotic, really, but she was. Every move was sensuous from the way she worked her hips to the way she thrust out her breasts and ran her hands down from them to her thighs. I couldn't believe a woman in at least her early fifties could be making me think what I was thinking about, but she was.

When the song ended, she walked quietly back to her table and sat down. About two, she came back to my booth and requested "Proud Mary" again. I already had it in the queue, so all I had to do was move it up a few songs.

The next Saturday, her first request was the CCR song, "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", and I was going nuts wanting to know more about her. I'd never had anyone just request songs from one artist or band before. I waited until she came back to my booth about two.

I smiled and then asked "'Proud Mary' again? You must really love CCR."

She beamed me that smile and nodded.

"I do."

"I'd love to hear the reason."

She grinned.

"It's too loud in here. I'd have to yell."

"Well, I get out of here about three thirty. If you can hang around, I'll buy you a cup of coffee and you can tell me then."

She smiled.

"If you're that interested, I suppose I could wait."

At three-thirty, I walked out the door. There were only six cars in the parking lot, mine, the four belonging to the bar manager, the bartender and the two waitresses, and a black minivan. The woman was standing beside the minivan and waved at me. When I walked up she smiled.

"We should probably take separate cars or your co-workers will think we're up to something. Where are we going?"

Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting across from her at a nearby pancake house. I'd asked if she wanted some pancakes to go with her coffee. She grinned and shook her head.

"Lands no. I have enough trouble with my weight as it is. If I ate this late, I'd have to starve myself for three days."

I watched her stir the sugar into her coffee. She put her spoon down, took a sip, and then looked up.

"The waitress said your name is Jerry. I'm Mary, Mary Houghton."

I smiled.

"Good to meet you, Mary. I've been dying to ask you this question for weeks. Why the love of CCR? I mean, they were a great band, but there were a lot of great bands back then."

"It was just something that happened to me at Woodstock."

"You went to Woodstock? I don't know anybody who went to Woodstock."

Mary grinned.

"That's because you're too young. Yes, I went. I was nineteen and in my second year of college. A bunch of my friends heard about it and we decided to all chip in and drive to New York. You know those old VW buses? Well, one of the guys had one and that's what we took."

She giggled.

"We were crammed into that thing like sardines. I got poked and jabbed all over, and a few times, well...we were too crowded in there to actually do anything, but we could do everything but. Today, most girls would be embarrassed to admit doing that sort of thing. I just thought it was fun, but then, we were all into free love and all that.

"Most of them changed after they got married and had kids. They're just normal grandpas and grandmas now, and they don't talk about it. I think a lot of them are embarrassed and afraid their grandkids will find out they were there. I couldn't forget what happened when CCR was playing. I still remember it like it was yesterday."

"So, you saw CCR up on the stage there?"

"Yes, I did. I was way in the back, but I saw them."

"So, if I'm not being too nosy, what was it that happened?"

Mary looked up at me shyly.

"I met a guy from Pennsylvania named Ricky. It had rained a lot and everything was mud so I'd been standing up all day long. Ricky said he had a little tent and asked if I wanted to sit inside and listen to the bands. I said I'd love to. The floor of the tent was dry and I got to sit down.

"Ricky also had some grass. I'd smoked grass before, not enough to get really high, but enough to feel relaxed. I got really relaxed that night. Between the grass and the music, I got really into what all the people were doing. You were free to do anything you wanted there, and there were girls all over with no clothes on, so I took mine off too. Ricky said he thought that was a great idea, so he took off his clothes as well. We sat there naked in his tent and shared a few joints while the music played.

"Well, one thing led to another and right in the middle of 'Born On The Bayou'...well, let's just say Ricky taught me a lot in his tent that night. We didn't stop until they started playing 'Proud Mary'. He looked down at me then and said 'They're playing your song, Mary'."

"Ah, that's why you like that song so much."

"Yeah, it always reminds me of what I felt back then. I was kinda proud. I was only nineteen, but I felt like a real woman after that."

"And those other CCR songs? They remind you of the same thing?"

Mary grinned shyly.

"Oh, yeah. 'Born On The Bayou' was when Ricky first touched me, and 'Have You Ever Seen The Rain'...that was the first time I ever really had an...well, my mother never told me it could feel like that."

Mary giggled.

"I guess she was either afraid I'd turn into a nymphomaniac or maybe it was never that good for her, I don't know. All I know is it was really great for me. Way better than the first two times."

Mary's explanation about the songs was interesting, but I was still intrigued by the fact she came to The Silver Stetson by herself.

"OK, I understand about the songs now, and I'll be happy to play those or any others you like, but why did you pick The Silver Stetson?"

Mary swirled her coffee, took a sip, then smiled.

"That's another story for another time. I think I should be getting home now."

After I walked her to her car, I watched her drive away and wondered what that other story would be. Mary was a woman unlike any I'd ever met before. Watching and hearing her talk about Woodstock, I could almost see the nineteen year old girl in that tent, and she wasn't embarrassed when she told me about having sex with the guy.

Yet, there was a quiet propriety to her. She didn't actually tell me they'd had sex or that she'd had her first orgasm there. She'd only said her mother never told her it could be like that. That sounded a lot like my own mother when she talked about sex. She would never say anything except to use hints about what she was talking about. The contradiction made Mary interesting, and the way she'd filled out her jeans and blouse made her more interesting still.

The next Saturday, Mary showed up at a little after midnight. After Sally brought her drink, Mary looked up at me and smiled and waved again. It was about one when she asked me to play "Lookin Out My Backdoor".

I grinned.

"I can hardly wait to hear what special meaning this one has for you."

She smiled.

"There's nothing special about it. I just like it."

The words sort of made themselves up and flowed out of my mouth.

"I'd kinda like to buy you another cup of coffee anyway."

She was still smiling, but I thought her smile got a little wider.

"I think I'd kinda like that."

That second cup of coffee was more interesting than the first. I found out Mary was a widow and that she hadn't entirely given up her hippy ways.

"Yes, like most of us did, I got married, not to Ricky, but I got married. Joe was another of our group at college and when we graduated, we both ended up working in Knoxville, not at the same place, but we were both in Knoxville. He called me one day and asked me out.

"We lived together at first. It just seemed like the right thing for us to do. Neither of us had lost our free spirits, so whatever society thought was right, we did the opposite.

"It makes me a little sad, though, to remember those times. We were going to make it a perfect world filled with peace and love. We had peace and love between us, but the rest of the world didn't seem to want that. Joe had gotten a student deferment from the draft and hoped Vietnam would be over before he graduated.

It wasn't. He got drafted six months after he graduated and went to school to be a radio operator. He thought that might keep him out of combat, but it didn't. Joe got sent to Vietnam as a radio operator for an infantry unit. He wrote me letters every day but he wouldn't tell me what he was doing. I didn't know he'd been wounded twice until he got home.

He proposed the day he got back home and we got married a month later. We were happy for the most part. We bought a house in the suburbs and had two daughters together. They're all grown now and off on their own. I'm going to be a grandmother for the third time in another three months."

She giggled.

"My girls found some pictures last Christmas I thought I'd hidden away. They were of me on the beach one spring break in Florida. It was a secluded beach and I wasn't wearing much in the way of clothes. My two girls were just floored. They said, 'Mom, you wouldn't even let us wear bikinis until we moved out, but you aren't wearing even that much'. I just laughed and said I remembered what I did then and that's why I wouldn't let them wear bikinis."

I chuckled.

"If your daughters look like you, I can see why. I'd bet your husband is a really happy guy."

Mary frowned a little.

"Yes, Joe thought I was sexy back then and as we got older, he kept telling me I just kept getting better. I do miss that.

"Joe was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. The doctors said his cancer was too advanced for chemo, so they gave him a prescription for pain medicine that let him do things without hurting so bad. Joe and I spent his last days fishing and hiking or just sitting on the porch swing holding hands, things we used to do when we were first married. Thankfully, he didn't linger in pain like some people do. He passed away in his sleep one night about six months later."

I said I was sorry and that if I'd known, I wouldn't have said what I did. She just smiled.

"Don't be sorry. Joe and I had a good life together. It ended too soon, but you can't sit around and mope about things you can't control. You have to get on with life and make it the best life you can.