May 23, 2009
Back from Tucson this morning. Taped a talking head segment for a Wyatt Earp segment for PBS at Luna Studios on east Speedway. On Friday I acted as the producer's guide and showed them the main geographic locations in Cochise County. It rained all night on Thursday, so it looked rather thin for shooting anything on Friday, but as we topped the divide on the way to Sonoita, the clouds broke over the Whetstones and we had spectacular scenery for the rest of the day. I'll post some of my photos of them shooting, later.

On the way down on Thursday I met Wayne Rutschman at Molino's Midway for a Mexican food lunch (he brought my daytimer, which I had inadverdantly left at his cabin last weekend). We yucked it up pretty good. Had the lunch special, two enchiladas (I bought: $22 cash).

Many memories on Speedway: the Doll House, the Embers, The Cedars, the Poco Loco, the Hi-Ho Club and the Dunes. All nightclubs I played in, or frequented in the sixties. Also went by the Branding Iron, the Long Branch and the Hayloft, all clubs I played in during the seventies when I was in my honkytonk phase. None of the clubs mentioned still exist, although several are still bars with different names. The Dunes and the Longbranch are both "Gentleman Clubs." I contemplated going inside to see if I could recognize the electrical outlets (The Hayloft door was open this morning) but I blew by there and decided there was nothing to see in those old haunts but disappointment.

Of course what we all want to happen is what actually happened to me one time, when I returned to Tucson after an absence of about five years. This was in the seventies. I went into Lloyd's, a little joint on Sixth Street, where all the Kingman kids went for Mexican food, and as I sat down, Charlotte, the lone waitress, walked by and said, "Hi Hon, the usual?"

That's the dream of nostalgia, but unfortunately, it's the exception to everything. And that's what makes it such an exceptional memory (hers and mine).

"If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work."
—Thomas J. Watson Sr.