Nashville Cats

If you're someone who insists on structure and schedules in your life, then any type of reunion can feel like herding cats.

Unlike a cruise where it's easy to head to the dining room or buffet for a family meal, our rental house stay required a few of us to make a trip to the store to stock up on provisions, followed by choosing a suitable place for dinner.

With only a 5-passenger sedan, we selected Edley's BBQ.  Julie and Gina, who both had injured feet, rode with me (the only authorized driver), and the others walked the mile or two.  It turned out to be a great place to eat, with all of us finding something that suited our palates.  I'd have to say the three meat combo special with two sides for $15 that Jay and Sasha shared seemed to be the best value.  My burnt ends with grits casserole tasted great and proved to be enough food for me, even if it did look like a dog had eaten too many hush puppies and gotten sick in the pan that served as my plate.

Everyone else seemed happy with their meals, too.

At the restaurant, we learned Amy's flight had been delayed, so we returned to the house for some card games, something our family enjoys.  We had discussed going downtown to hear some live music, which is everyone in Nashville, but Laszlo, who would be leaving in the morning, said he'd prefer the quieter setting of the living room for discussion, and everyone else agreed.

At 9:30, Julie and I headed to the airport to pick up Amy, who texted that she was starving.

I asked how Bojangles spicy chicken sounded, and she said great, but by the time she landed, Bojangles and most other fast food restaurants were closed.  We eventually settled on Waffle House, and Amy's Texas Cheese Steak Sandwich (think Philly Cheese Steak with Texas toast instead of a roll)  with hash browns was great.

When we arrived back "home," more card playing fun ensued at our happy full house.

The next morning, however, we would already be losing one of our number, as Laszlo had booked a flight to Philadelphia on Friday morning so he wouldn't miss his SAT tutoring job on Saturday.  I took him to the airport with time to spare, but his flight was delayed, so he ended up spending the whole day in airports and airplanes for what could have been a two hour flight.

We had originally thought we'd take taxis downtown, but once we had rented a car, we decided to go in shifts.


I dropped off Gina, Amy, Sasha and Jay, who snagged a great corner table at the rooftop bar of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and then went home to pick up Julie and Emma.

While it would be easier to simply meet at an onboard lounge of a cruise ship, I have to say that I really enjoyed driving back and forth to transport everyone, reminding me of happy days when I was taking our kids to ice skating, karate, ballet and other activities, enjoying offhand conversations in concentrated bursts on the drives.

Parking downtown was $20 for 3 hours or $30 for 8 hours, and I made what turned out to be the wise choice with 8 hours.

Our corner table was a glorious place to look down at the city, with the live music distant enough to not interfere with our conversation... and vice versa.  As is more standard in our family than others, a deck of cards...Nashville souvenir cards purchased by Gina on the way to the table apparently...allowed us to play War, a game Emma learned from her Nana Julie the night before.

We instituted a rule we'd first introduced when my children were little that we call "Cream Puff Buff," whereby a lowly two beats an ace.  Just to add a new twist, in Nashville we added the "Dreaded Seven of Diamonds" would beat a two, if the two was beating an ace.

The background of that card name came in another game we've played repeatedly, Spades, in which we had a run where people bidding nil (take no tricks) seemed to meet their Waterloo when the Dreaded Seven of Diamonds was played.

I prophetically stated that rule probably won't come up for another five years, but within 30 minutes, sure enough a seven of diamonds won the war by beating a two that had beat an ace!

It was lunch time, so Julie and Gina probably made the right calls for Diet Cokes, while Emma had a lemonade, but the rest of us had Coors Light with a lime on the rim, except Sasha, who had hard cider.

Emma had some chicken tenders which she seemed to enjoy, sharing her French fries with everyone at the table.  An order of nachos for the table was also tasty and sated our appetites.

Gina beat Amy in some kind of credit card war and picked up the tab, which didn't seem fair in that she and Emma would be leaving us the next day.

However, tomorrow was a long way off.

We headed through the sunny streets of Nashville to find another venue.

The band at the front of Layla's, a couple of doors away, sounded great, with a versatile singer backed by a terrific band, so we were soon inside.  Julie wanted more of a walk and left quickly, but the rest of us found our exercise dancing by our table.  No, it wasn't a dance floor, but no one seemed to mind.

Mostly, we danced as couples, but Emma came up with some dazzling solo dance steps of her own, including dramatic pauses where she struck a pose with her face nearly buried inside her elbow.

After an hour or so, we headed back out again, but not before Julie rejoined us and we Texas Two Stepped (okay, it was more of a country polka) around our "dance floor.".

Every bar seemed to have at least one great band playing, with singers and musicians so good that I couldn't help thinking about the words to the classic John Sebastian song:
"There's thirteen hundred and fifty two Guitar cases in Nashville, and any one that unpacks his guitar could play twice as better than I will."

That was a revelation I made the only other time I visited Nashville, during the bicentennial year 1976 as a young man who went everywhere with a guitar case himself.



Interestingly, it was non-country venues that had long lines outside; those were found at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville and BB King's Blues Club.  I told Jay that Universal should advise Snoop Dogg or some other hiphop artist open a bar there.

Jay immediately grasped the brilliance of the concept (or at least played along), saying the artist should be Nelly, and he could call the joint  "Country Grammar," apparently a hit song I'd never heard but that does seem to have the perfect name (admittedly I originally thought Jay said "Country Gramma").

Emma had been a good sport about everything, especially considering her musical tastes run more to Disney songs like "Let It Go" or pop tunes like "It's All About the Bass," so when Jay and Sasha spotted a candy store, they recommended going over there, allowing Emma to pick out enough candies to fill a small bag.  Jay downed some of Pixie Stix and Necco Wafers himself, easily enough to send his triglycerides totally out of whack.

By mid-afternoon, Emma, Nana Julie and Sasha were done with downtown Nashville's music scene, so I took them home while the others headed to Robert's Western World for lunch of a fried balogna sandwich with a PBR combo for $5.

I was able to return to the same parking lot using the same receipt.

By the time I parked, I was very proud of the fact that I negotiated past what had become major traffic jams using side streets, back alleys and even parking lots which I had learned about on prior drives.

I felt like I must be driving like a local, and by the time I made another half dozen trips to and from the airport, I felt like a Nashville native.

The kids had secured a great table in the loft, where we proceeded to play cards and listen to another top notch band.

Eventually we felt we should clear the table for country fans starting their honky tonkin' evening, because after already spending a great day listening to bands downtown, we had tickets for the Grand Ole Opry that night.














All that and a bag of chips, baby!