Whooooo these are plenty scary, kids!

I know how you felt Jerry. A few years ago I took a band into a Royal Canadian Legion for a gig. (That's like a VFW) We were doing country music and one of the members screamed at my bass player: "Take that hat off in here!" My startled bass player said "why?" and the member knocked his hat off (almost knocking his head off in the process!) Now I know that the wearing of hats is seen as disrespectful to the fallen soldiers...but...this guy could have explained that in 3 seconds, and the hat would have been off. Nope, he was a jerk looking for a fight. And if my experience with different personalities over the years taught me anything it was that this guy was gonna cause the band trouble all night...protected by his (peace time) army service. I sat down at one of the tables and wrote out cheques to my two band mates, found the person who'd hired us, and said "no show tonight". We left. I couldn't afford it, but I'm glad I did it.
Interestingly enough, the very same same legion (about 2 years later) voted to forbid Sihks (who had served in the Canadian army) to wear their turbans (which they HAVE to, cause it's part of their religion!) inside the legion. Ten to one the same asshole who whacked my bass player rather than explain the situation, was a major part in the banning.

Rick