Memory Post

I came across this while I was cleaning up/cleaning out a few days ago. I had not forgotten that I had it. I knew it was in the guest room behind a chair. Grand Finale was a much loved restaurant in Tallahassee in the eighties and nineties, I do believe. Check out the hours they were open. You could literally go in there at three a.m. and order steamed veggies with cheese. Or Crab Etouffée. Or a good salad or peel and eat shrimp or...well, a fine meal. Not just some late night junk menu with burgers and fries on it. It was located on the Strip on Tennessee Street which is right in the heart of FSU and at that time there were several bars that offered entertainment and Grand Finale was one of them. Students, of course, made up a lot of the bars' clientele but some of us older folks frequented them too. And when I say "older" I mean we were in our thirties, mostly. 
There was a bar right down the street from Finale's called Bullwinkle's and it was legendary. I believe it's still there. It was a rambling place, owned by a man named Jim Smith, a legend himself. When I was in nursing school, I spent a good number of hours there with my girlfriends when my children were with their father. We danced. We danced and we danced and we danced. Our favorite band was called Four in Legion and I have spoken of them before. They were...fucking amazing. 
I eventually made a friend of the guitar player and was with him and his wife when they had their first and second babies. Ziggy Luis was his name and I talked about him when he died a few years ago. He was not only a fantastic guitarist and vocalist, he also wrote songs, was a good husband and dad, and one of the funniest guys I ever met. I still miss him bad. 
But I was talking about Finale's, as we all called it. On Fridays, Bullwinkle's became the place to be for what came to be known as "Hippie Hour" and a whole bunch of us old Tallahassee freaks would make our way over there and drink our drinks and socialize and maybe dance to whatever band was playing and people brought their kids and their dogs because there was a big outdoor area with a stage and a deck. It was so much fun. We'd go to supper afterwards but didn't start going to Finale's until the kids got older and we had babysitters for them. That's when it became our routine, our ritual, to make our way down the sidewalk to Finale's where we'd sit at big tables and eat delicious foods and drink coffee and continue our evening. 
A guy named Cam was the main chef at Finale's and he still lives in Tallahassee. He keeps his hand in the cooking business. He's actually just retired from working as a chef on an oil rig which is probably one of the most important jobs on an oil rig because those people need a lot of calories to do what they do and also, food is probably one of the main pleasures they have, stuck out on those things for months at a time. 
So the point of this endless story is that I have been ready for a very long time to pass on the Grand Finale sign. Missippy James took that sign off the wall outside of the restaurant after it closed and gave it to me. I am not sure why he gave it to me but any gift that James gave me was a gift to be cherished and I have cherished it for a long time but never really had a place to hang it and so today I got in touch with Cam and asked if he wanted it and he said he'd take it and put it on his deck. I bet he's got some truly wild stories about his time there. Finale employees were a community unto themselves and only the strong survived. 

So that's one more thing I've found a new home for. Little by little, letting things go. 

Another thing I'm letting go of is an old funky linen coat thing, not to be confused with my old funky linen gunslinger coat which I will wear until it completely falls apart. 
Before I got rid of it though, I realized that the buttons on it were beautiful and so I cut them off and will keep them which is just something else my kids will have to deal with when I'm dead. 

But who would dare to throw away such mother-of-pearl gorgeousness? I have SO many buttons but honestly, they do not take up a lot of room. And aren't grandmothers supposed to have tins and jars full of buttons? Isn't that part of our magic? I am certain that Owen would still love to go through my buttons, organizing them the way he did as a little boy. I'll have to suggest that next time he comes over. 

Because I am feeling tender right now about people I have loved who are no longer on the same plane as we, the supposed living, I will give you this video of Zig doing Bell Bottom Blues. I always loved his version of it. 

After Four-in-Legion broke up, Zig quit the rock star life and formed a small act called Zig and the Zigtones. Of course. And as life went on and situations changed, he pared it down to a solo act. A man and a guitar, singing and playing as musicians and troubadours have done since time immemorial.

And to bring it all back home, Zig loved Finale's as did so many musicians who played the Strip because they almost never, if ever, got a chance to go and relax after a gig, have a beer, and eat something like steamed vegetables with Havarti cheese. 

I'm going to go steam artichokes. Havarti will not be involved though. 

Love...Ms. Moon