Yes, I did serve a couple of terms as da mare of a small Iowa community after serving on the Council for a couple of terms. Patronage wasn't really an option there because there were too few public jobs so I had to let go of the dream. When the encumbent learned that I was running, he dropped out of the race so I always ran unopposed. I figured, why should Jack Cooke be the only mayor in bluegrass music.

I was actually hired once by the hizzonor da mare's organization, to play for a campaign rally at Medinah Temple. Art, do you remember a guy named Joe Klee? He wrote a song for the occasion and he and I and Herb Jones and, as I recall, a woman whose name escapes me at the moment played the gig. Paid pretty well as I recall. Much later, our bluegrass band used to get hired for the First National Bank Plaza concerts in the summertime. Does that make me a patronage worker?

I also remember hizzonor da mare saying that he didn't believe anyone in the City of Chicago was hungry and inviting anyone who was hungry to give him a call. That would have been in the late 1960's sometime.

      - Mark