I went down to visit my Son a little bit after he moved there. He had just turned 18. I surprised him with my visit. Consequently he worked all day and rested at night. I would get up and find my way to the Quarter, then wander around all day. Around dinner time we would go somewhere for dinner and then he would drop me off near Bourbon St. so I could entertain myself till Midnight or so with all the live music offered there. He would come back around to get me and take me home. He could not go into the bar because they all had bouncers at the door and he was only 18. He just stood outside the open door around Midnight and I would see him there.
After a few days I found my favorite spots. I returned to them frequently. There was one in particular that I still remember. It had a stage with a curved front edge. Not a very large stage either. They would jam about 8 musicians up there. The front row was a horn section. Loved that band. I also kept running into a nice guy from England that, one night asked me to dance. He didn't speak any English and I did not speak French. So we used hand signals to communicate with each other. We ran into each other a few times that week. I had told my son about meeting this guy and the language barrier that we had.
One night the guy from England was in that same bar with some friends. He asked me to dance again and was standing next to me talking. Well, not really talking but there was some form of communication. The band went on break and the bartender turned up the jukebox. It was a song that I had heard before. Yep, I knew the words....sort of. It was in French. Trying to find something to "talk" about, I turned to him and motioned something like a question (shrugging shoulders) and a listening thing (hand cupped up to ear) to the speaker in the ceiling above us. He knew what they were saying in the song but had no way to explain it to me. Remember, he spoke no English. Right then my son appeared at the front door. Mind you, he is 6'6" with dark features and buzz cut hair. I wanted the two to meet. I asked the guy from England (by pulling on his arm) to come to the door to meet my son. To my surprise he sat down on the bar stool and hung on to it tight.
He was motioning to me that he wasn't going anywhere. Now, why would he be opposed to meeting my son? Oh well, nothing I could do. I think I gave him a brief hug and took off.
As usual, what I did was innocent but if you look at it from his point of view.......
"voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir"
voulez=will
vous=you
coucher= to sleep
avec=with
moi=me
ce=this
soir=evening
