"Mudbug Madness"...

Ten pounds bought and I ate five!

It's all you can eat catfish or crawfish for a Friday night special at a local restaurant called, "Scoops" here in Folsom. LA. We got to the restaurant around seven and got the last ten pounds they were gonna serve tonight.  

I have a Facebook friend from Sweden and when I posted the picture, she saw it and said they serve 'em up annually around August. I didn't even know they had crawfish ( as we pronounce it here in 'da Bayou! ) in Sweden. I asked her how do the Swedish prepare such a delicacy and she replied, "We boil them with salt and lots of dill and eat them cold with toast or bread and an assortment of cheese and perhaps a salad. Sometimes here in the north, where I live now, we make a cheese pie of Västerbottenost, a local stronger cheese."

"When I was a child we went fishing for crayfish with my grandfather, who always pulled up his own from the lake where he lived. Sweet memories! Also, there is a saying in Sweden that "kräftor kräva dessa drycker", that is,"crayfish requires pilsner and schnaps" to be properly enjoyed!"

When my Swedish friend inquired about our recipe, I unloaded all the things one would put in the pot. Well, we boil them with salt too, but we add lots of seasoning such as cayenne, cloves, marjoram, bay leaves, thyme, black pepper, paprika, etc. in a cheese cloth bag and throw it into the boiling water. That was the old country way. Nowadays, there's a commercial seasoning packet that you use to add it with the crawfish. Then, we add coarsly chopped up celery, lemon, onions, garlic, sausages, corn on the cob, small red potatoes.

Beer is the libation of choice, I told her.

She laughed and mentioned one day getting together to "compare notes!" Well, I am part Swedish!

Copyright2016/ Ben Bensen III

smile emoticon

"A Story About A "Long, Long Time", Ago!"

Here's tonight's beddy-bye:

All things aside, no ticket to ride.

Doc gives good advice, no bandaids at my side.

And time washes clean the bloody wounds unseen,

My horoscope told me, but I don't know what it means.

Cause I've done everything I know to try and stop the bleed,

And I think I'm gonna be awake for a long long time!

Cut drinking here,

I held back the tears.

I can't say it hurts me, 'cuz my finger's in the beer.

And I never knew, what a paper cut can do.

All the while my thumb's stuck in the beer and turning blue.

Cause I've done everything I know 'cept trying to suck my thumb,

I know it's gonna hurt me, can't believe I'd be that dumb!

I'll wait for the day,

The pain to go away.

Knowing that you warned me of how awake I'd have to stay,

And l'm, full of flaws...

I am the cause!

Thinking of the memory of what it's like to saw some logs!

And, I've done everything I know to try to ease my mind,

And I think I'll be in misery, all through the night time.

Cause I've done everything I know to try to feel real fine,

But, this cut will keep me awake, for a long, long time.

This is one of my "Beddy-Byes" I wrote to say goodnight to my internet friends. I'm spoofing the Linda Ronstadt song, "Long, Long Time!" Some of the folks who stay up later than I do, like to try and guess the title of the songs I spoof. This one was pretty easy. Some of my spoofs are harder to solve. I get a bit disappointed if no one can guess the title and then, I get a chuckle, if it is too easy. 

But, this song reminded me of something in my past that I almost had forgotten. I am writing this story to make sure I never forget that I actually met the guy who wrote the song,"Long, Long Time" at a special birthday party for a friend at the comedy club called, "The Ice House" in Pasadena, CA. His name is Gary White. He played a couple of his tunes on stage as his birthday gift to our friend, but he wouldn't play that song.

I don't remember how we got on the subject of the song. In our conversation at the bar, he might have introduced himself as the writer, but I really don't remember. We shared a beer or two, and in between sips, I told him that I really loved that song. At the time, it was definitely on my top twenty five list. I told him that I really liked the use of the harpsichord in the arrangement, a statement the big guy kinda scoff at. We talked about the music industry and his disillusionment with the business end of it. He asked me if I was a musician to which I replied in the affirmative. He asked me if I was waiting to go on stage and I answered, "Kind of!"

Before he left the bar to go on stage, I had to drive home my belief that he wrote the song with the same heartfelt emotion I shared with Ronstadt.

I said, "If you didn't like her arrangement, surely you must admit the lyrics are beautiful."

His response was, as he walked away to go on stage, "My version of the song would not be recognizable, if I sang it the way I had written it!"

I was flabbergasted, and felt rather silly, like I was being spoofed by this trucker dude.

I later asked my friend, Tholo Chan, who threw this party for his wife, if indeed, that big guy playing on stage, was the writer of that song. Tholo was, at one time, the bass guitarist for the folk rock group the,"We Five." He assured me that the big, burly, bearded man with thick, wide, truck driving hands playing on stage, was indeed, the writer of the song, "Long, Long, Time!

Later, at home that night, I had to find out for myself if Tholo was right by checking the credits written on the album itself and under the title was written, Gary B. White.

You know, you just never know…

Copyright 2014/ Ben Bensen III