Thanks, Amos: I would like to have this thread here as a cyber-kitchen table where we all stop in and talk about whatever we feel like talking about. We'll all run out of nostalgic kitchen table stories, and while I'm enjoying reading every one, I did hope that this thread would work just as your last post did... people just stopping by to talk about something they'd be likely to share around a kitchen table.

And even though you wouldn't appreciate the subject matter of the songs, you might have enjoyed the black gospel group I described earlier in this thread. While I have always loved rhythm and blues and soul singers, I didn't have any opportunity to hear them in an all-white small town in Wisconsin. And, by the time I came to New York, that music was pretty much gone. Not that I could have afforded to go hear anyone on my peanut butter budget. All the great soul singers came out of black churches, and every once in awhile I'll come across someone who seems like they've stepped out of a time warp. It's the closest I'll ever get to hearing Wilson Pickett or James Brown. (James Brown is still performing but he stands completely still now... too old to dance.) The lead singer of the gospel quartet got down on one knee very dramatically when a line in the song talked about dropping to our knees in prayer. All he needed was a cape, and a couple of stage hands to help him get back on his feet, like James Brown used to do.. His day job is a bus driver, in New Haven..

Jerry