BS: Sniff... I need a hug....

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Jan 08 - 10:06 AM

Well, the last jam was, ahhhhhh, surreal.... I mean, the most folks I've ever seen in the barber shop was maybe 30 at one time and with 30 it seemed packed...

Yesterday it was at least 100 and more were showing up when we left 'bout 5:00...

It was so packed that there were 30 or 40 people millin' around out front on the sidewalk so what's a bluesman with the name "Sidewalk Bob" -- a name given to him from the Archie Edwrads folks because of the many jams he's started out front of the barbershop-- to do??? Yeah, it was cold but I started my last jam right there wiht half a dozen other folks playing and another 30 or so watchin'...

Sniff....

Well, I think I'm okay with it now... All of Archies barbershop stuff was gone (in storage now until a new home is found) when I got there early when only a few regulars were there except the two sinks still mounted on the wall... Yeah, before the place started filling up, Bobert's Plubling Co. (me) took care of them and got them disconnected and removed to join the rest of the stuff at the storage faciluty...

All in all, seeing that many people come and pay their last respects, I feel okay with this... Not great, but okay...

There was a real nice poster available, too... It has a picture of the inside of the barbershop without any people in it... Very nicely done... So I boought one and had as everyone that showed while I was there sign it...

Life goes on...

Thanks everyone fir the support and the hugs...

Bobert (Sidewalk Bob)

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 27 Jan 08 - 09:53 AM

It doesn't make any sense at all, I know. One well-deserved hug on its way.

I'm SO sorry, Bobert. I know a little about the feeling. In the middle of the grief, though, keep thinking and plotting. You know the elements that NEED to be preserved. How can that happen? Who can you pull in to help keep the embers warm 'til a new way is made?


Dani

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: Janie
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 10:57 PM

Oh ((((((((((((((((((((((((Beaubear)))))))))))))))))))))))))))). I'm so sorry.

It sounds like Y'all closed the place out with style.

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 10:43 PM

Kinda the way I'd like to be remembered....

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 08:33 PM

Well, it's over...

But what a way to go.... By 3:30 thins afternoon the enetire barbershop was so packed with people that folks could no longer gte in... So folks were outside on the sidewalk and even into the streets... What a fitting way to say good-bye...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: ranger1
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 11:30 AM

((((((((Bobert))))))))

Sorry, bobert.

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: jacqui.c
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 08:44 AM

(((((((((((Bobert)))))))))))

I'll get the Evil Sisterhood to put some 'fluence out for a new venue.

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: My guru always said
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 03:23 AM

Sorry to hear this {{{{Bobert}}}} There'll be a place around the corner somehow, positive thoughts!

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 10:18 PM

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-gone, Bobert.

That's all I gotta say.

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-gone it.

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 08:30 PM

Thanks, maeve...

Yeah, Archie Edwards was not only a barber but a very good blues player... Back in the 60's other blues player would come to his shop on Saturday and at 1:00 sharp he would quit playin' barber and start playin' blues...

This shop is way up in Northeast, Washington, D.C. where back then -- okay, as well as now -- white folks didn't go... But over the years white folks ventured up to the ol' barbershop on Saturday afternoons for the jams an' to be learnt up by folks who had been playin' it all their lives...

Well, there ain't many of the ol black blues guys that come 'round these days... Most have either died or got too old but there's still a few... N.J Warren is the real deal... He sounds like Lightin' Hopkins... I love him and call him "Dad" and I know he loves me back... We played a few "pay" gigs together... The last one wa at gthe Luray Caverns Festival and we pulled up in N.J.'s Lincoln and N.J. opens the trunk, pulls out his geetar case and in doin' so pulls out one of them quart water bottles which rolls down the parking lot... So I go catch up with it and look at it an you know how good shine don't look like water 'cauae of them little bubbles??? Well, trust me that I know water from shine and vice versa....

So I say to N.J., "Hey man, that's shine in there" and he looks at me and say "No" but with that in-toneation wherer we both know it's shine...

Nwevermind that... Here we're gettin' $500 to play 45 minutes an' N.J.'s cell phone ring right there in the middle of our set...

"Hello???"

Oh, I'm gonna miss the barber shop...

Sniff...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: maeve
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 08:02 PM

This may help other wanderers find it.

Link to Bobert's Blues Barbershop thread

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: maeve
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 07:55 PM

((((((((Bobert))))))) There you go. I'm glad you posted it down here too, Bobert. Severn had mentioned your other thread, and I was trying to remember the title. It's painful when a loved gathering comes to an ending. I'll go read your thread.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 07:29 PM

Ahhhhh, Severn, I talked with Jim Lande today and he is as involved as anyone at the board level and they don't know... They got all the stuff out... Down to the tiles on the walls and have it all ready to put back together when they find a new location...

Right now, Elenor and Mike have some places they can play... But it ain't they same as the jam... N.J. is the one that I worry most about... I love N.J. to the bottom of my feet... He just lost his wife last year and the barber shop has been his social life going back forever... And he ain't gettin' no younger and I worry about him... This is gonna hit him harder than anyone else...

Yeah, Kendall... The Barber shop has been such a good thing for so long its hard to imagine life without it??? Yeah, they'll find some other byuilding and move the stuff in but it will never be the same... I guess to new folks that come it will be really cool but to us oldies, it will never be the same...

B~ (as in "bummed" tonight)

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: kendall
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 07:10 PM

All things come to an end. Sometimes it seems like it's mostly the good things.

Subject: RE: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: Severn
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 06:39 PM

Where will Elenor Ellis, Mike Baytop and the rest of the gang congregate? The Archie Edwards Foundation will continue to operate, I hope. A vital Washington DC institution should continue somehow, somewhere.

Subject: BS: Sniff... I need a hug....
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 06:26 PM

Well, well, well...

I realize that alot of the folks I wrestle and wrangle with are below-the-liners But I actaully has a threa I stared that is above the line 'cause it ain't BS... Okay, to me it's BS...

Consult above-the-line thread entirled "Blues Barbershop Closes, Wash, D.C." fir details...

Sniff...

Bobert