When I was in high school I was part of a trio, (guitar, banjo/fiddle, accordian) and we called ourselves "The Bosque Country Trio." A friend's father worked at a Hatchery in Waco, Texas, and every Saturday night a fellow hawked medicine from a flatbed truck and had entertainers warm up the crowd before he made his pitch. My friend's father arranged for us to perform one Saturday. It was during WW2 and Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys had just released a new 78RPM record, "When the Yanks Raised the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima Isle," with Tommy Duncan doing the vocal.

We were a big hit, probably because the audience wanted to delay the medicine pitch as long as possible. We did "Oklahoma Hills," "Worried Mind," and other popular tunes of the day, but the folks wanted to hear the new Iwo Jima song. It was so new we hadn't had time to learn it before the gig. We finished our set and the audience members began throwing coins on the truck bed and kept wanting more music. The Medicine Man came out as we were picking up the coins and promised the crowd that if they would settle down and listen to his pitch, he would have us back the following Saturday night and guaranteed we would do, "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima Isle."

The crowd settled down and he launched his pitch selling a tonic that cured everything from stomach ache, to arthritis. Believe it or not, he sold a bunch of medicine.

So. I realize most of you are too young to have ever played a medicine show, but maybe somebody has. Anybody?

Oh, and we never heard from the guy again.

DougR