Loretta's Bar or Nashville: Day Twelve

(names, including name of bar, have been changed. Except for Jonah, who took the above photo)

Well, I should actually say "Nashvulle" cause that's how all y'all say it down here. Anyhow, tonight took the cake in terms of gettin' to know the real music city. It all started around 6 pm which felt like around 2 cause see, we didn't wake up til about noon after staying up real late last night playing music-or pickin' and grinin' , I should say. So back to the story, well Jonah and I went out with his friend Jim who works with a woman, Sally and she frequents (3 nights this week) a little bar called Loretta's. Now, my first mistake was trying to find their website so we could get directions, cause see, they ain't got one. Well, anyway, we found our way over there after almost runnin' right into the river. I missed the turn-off but we got there all right and let me tell ya, this AINT a place you just walk into-I mean you got to have a membership or something for this place. It was the real deal-Now, it wasn't an underground bar or even spectacular to look at or nothin', but the folks in this place, well, let's just say they been there a while and they weren't quite ready to accept anyone who wasn't their own kind.

Luckily, we had an in-Jims friend Sally-who, as far as I can tell, survives off a diet of Bud Light, Menthol Pall Mall lights and shakes of salt that she licks of her hand every 10-15 minutes or so. Don't know what the salts was there for anyway-it aint for no tequila shots-I didn't see nothin' but Bud Light buckets floatin' round that place. Well anyway, Sally was real nice and she sat with us in between pool games-told me about the old days when Protestants married Protestants and Catholics married Catholics-and about how 'blacks' had to sit at the back of the bus, cause thats just the way they liked it, or so "Big-Mama" (her grandmother) said. But now things are a little bit more relaxed though not too much time went by before I heard every kind of racial joke in the book-well, that didn't stop us from talking religion at least-and about ex-wives [not mine] and drinkin' too much. There were some nice people there though-I just wish I could tell ya what half of 'em said, but truth is, I ain't got no idea. Now, I can read lips pretty well, but some kinds of accents and the lack of teeth coupled with a drunken slur and a jukebox playin' in the background-well, i didn't hear much of what come out of their mouths.

It was fun though till the second bucket of beer-by that time the air was so thick with smoke, you couldn't just cut it with a knife, you couldn't even see quite across the room-cause see they ain't got any ventilation in the place, so just sometimes they crack the door open (which thankfully was near us) but it was pretty darn cold and rainy out tonight. Supposed to be warmer by Monday, but anyway, didn't stop me from lookin' for the bathroom which I had been warned about-between avoiding contact with any surface and holding the door that didn't have no lock on it-well, it was alright-just the sign above the toilet said, "If theres no toilet paper, look in here [arrow pointed towards mirror/medicine cabinet] Thanks! mgmt " Underneath someone wrote "If there aint any, am I supposed to wipe my ass with my face" Which underneath that someone wrote "If you can, you go girl!"

So with relief that no one had walked in on me, and relief from relieving myself after a quarter a bucket of beer, I made my way back to our little table in the corner and my new friends, set my beer on the corner table/cardboard box covered in old coasters, packaged party lights, and a moldy gourd sittin' in a plastic dish.

Truth is, the people there, they was like a family and look at me here talkin' just like 'em-well, it's kind of charming and they are good people, even if half of 'em carry guns and only like white people. I am happy to see a side of Nashvulle that not everyone sees, specially us Northerners.