OT See a Portland blues legend before it's too late

I saw him play at Mt. Tabor when he first started out with a group called Brown Sugar which also had Paul Delay and Lloyd Jones.

 

Back in 10th grade (1971) myself and 3 friends put together a high school concert/dance at LOHS as a fundraiser for Bangledesh, not to be confused with the Concert for Bangledesh by George Harrison and Friends (our inspiration).

We managed to get Brown Sugar to play the gig, and in our meeting with them Paul said they had to charge us their usual $200 because they were in the musician's union.

Then he winked at the band members, took out his checkbook and wrote a check for $200 to donate to our cause.

Classy guys, and definitely still the best blues band Portland ever had.

Al Kuzens was also a band member.
The Italian Chainsaw is always a treat to witness.

 

A lot of the posters here don't realize that $200 was a lot of money back then.

For comparison, I was mowing lawns after school for $4-$5 a lawn in 1971. Gas was 29 cents a gallon.

 

Enjoy. These guys were great to see live.

 

Do not let them lock the doors again! As you know, I live on a hill and when it snows I have trouble getting around.

 

Excellent, thanks

 

I remember gas being 29.9 back in the late 50s. I used to get $1 for mowing a lawn in 1960. I also remember the days of the 5 cent candy bar, newspaper, telephone call, ice cream cone and coke. We could go to the soda fountain and get a phosphate soda for 3 cents.

Massive bones at the butcher shop in every grocery store were free for your dog. And the guy at the gas station would give us a free inner tube that had been patched three times (the limit was two for a car) to ride around on in the lake.

Ah, the old times. There was no Playboy so we had to get a hold of black and white magazines printed on cheap paper with photos of bare breasted women in publications such as "Modern Photography.

There were both brick and cobblestone roads in Portland. Trolleys with overhead wires feeding the electric motors.

 

You grew up in Lake Oswego?

 

I remember these guys playing our high school dances (I have a yearbook somewhere with them in it). If you scored Brown Sugar for your dance, you were living large....

 

First 22 years of my life.

 

I lived there when it was called Oswego. My cousins lived about half a block from LOHS on Goodall Rd. We lived all over what they now call First Addition. I now live in Palisades Heights across the street from Lakeridge HS.

I used to swim every day in the summer in the public swim pool and fish often in Tryon creek. Great place for a young boy to grow up in.

We used to know the Mayor and owners of the Dairy Maid and the Pinafore.

The chief of police, Leslie Dunbar, was a year older than me and lived a half a block away when he was a kid.

Greatest town in the USA in my opinion. I always wanted to live on the lake and I would have except my ailments cut short my career as an engineer.

Now, we drive back and forth on South Shore every day and I love it.

I moved to Oswego in 1948 and know quite a bit about it's older history.

 

Lived on A, 2nd, 6th, Fernwood, Goodall, C, and 5th. Dad was Battalion Chief at the Fire Dept. Our house on 6th and B was across from the Needhams. Knew the Newtons well. Practically lived in Tryon.

 

I used to play the same circuit as Little Charlie and the Nightcats back in the day...think I saw these guys play in Sacramento once at the Club 88 where Robert Cray used to gig all the time......they really remind me of Little Charlie and the Nightcats....great blues band.

 

Chuck Needham was my buddy. His father was the mayor and owner of those two restaurants. We lived next to the Eglys on 6th and C. We also lived on 10th and D, 8th and B and 2nd and between C and D. My grandmother lived across the street on @nd.

My aunt, uncle and two cousins lived on Fourth and C right where that park is now. The Campbells lived right across the street on 4rth. Dick Campbell was a close friend whom I've now lost track of.

There is a guy I used to ride a small VA bus with back and forth to the hospital that used to go to Oswego schools and knew my older cousin.

Small world, eh?

Hey, if you're old enough, you might remember the Oswego water festival that my mother helped start. Among other things, she got Helo Haddie, co-star in South Pacific to come to our festival. She also helped found the civic theater with an opening production of Harvey.

I went to Forest Hills. I ran into the husband of my kindergarden teacher at a Volvo garage in Tigard about 15 years or so ago. I still remember the names of some of my teachers.

We moved to Portland in the summer of 1959 right before Oswego merged with Lake Grove. I still stay in touch with some of those people.

 

Can I just say how much I appreciate @Lanny and @MARIS61 as forum folklorists?

 

I love Cray's music.

 

Knew the Egly's. Knew Rose (Chuck's ex) fairly well. She remarried and lived in the duplex behind the Needhams. I was born in 55, moved to 6th st around the time you moved to Portland.

You probably knew Ron (turning 70 this year) and/or Joan Fisher who lived in the red house across the street, one house off the corner. I married their youngest sister, Rhonda.

I lived at 6th and B, kitty corner to the Needhams. Our house burned down in 1970 and there's a medical center there now.

 

Did you know Steve Patterson or Ron Kieling? They played baseball at LO.