August 10, 2011

SEADAY enroute to COZUMEL

Back to Medical….My cough has just not gone away, and it is going down to my chest again. Not to mention thoroughly thrashing my throat and vocal chords. I looked in the mirror today and do not like what I see. I have lost so much weight my clothes are hanging on me. This is not good. Medical confirmed I still have bronchitis, so back on the antibiotics. I told him to make it strong enough this time to wipe everything out. He has me on a double dosage. I don’t feel sick…but I sure don’t feel well.

Had a very nice compliment the other day, people continue to talk about me in a great way. What is nice is that I have passed the 60-Day mark, which I had not been able to do at my last job. Which, as always, shall remain nameless because I genuinely like the establishment and its owner. This job, as tough as it is, has been a tonic to compensate and heal that debacle.

Continuing the balance of good and bad….I heard that my friend Mary Jo passed away from cancer this week. Another friend, Mark Watson, wrote a beautiful obituary that was printed in the Key West Citizen, and I definitely feel he knew her much better than I did, but she had a large impact on me during my years in Key West, and so I thought I would write about her.

Mary Jo was an original. They often say “God broke the mold when he made so-and-so”, but in her case he literally did. I remember the first time I saw her. I was in the By George Bar at LaTeDa, on the upper end of Duval. Many of you know it. It’s a beautiful little bar that hosts, or did at that time, many of the locals who want a more refined atmosphere than, say, the Schooner Wharf. It is a cabaret, of sorts, and the two most well known performers there are the incredible duo, a husband and wife team, Pat and Deb. Deb is a stunning black woman with a voice like velvet and Mary Jo was a great fan of theirs. It was my first time in the bar, and I was new to Key West and a little unsure of what all was going on.

I’m standing in the corner, as is my wont to do when in a bar I don’t know, enjoying the music, and the set ends. I clap with everyone else and see this short woman with her dark hair cut short and the most astonishingly red lipstick. I mean RED, like I always imagine the women from the Fifties wore, who when they smoked left this bright red ring around the filter. Which she did.

This woman takes up the glass vase on a stool next to the piano and starts to walk around the room telling people to pony up some cash. She comes up to me. “Who the hell are you?” she asked in a very brassy tone. She made me think of a female Colonel.

“Um, I’m Mike” I said.

“Do you like the music?”

“Yeah, it’s great.”

“Glad you think so. Then put some money in the Goddamned jar.”

Obviously the only option was to do what she required me to do. Bemused, I did so with as much speed as I could muster.

Later on that evening I found out the woman’s name was Mary Jo. As the years went by I was never invited to her house, indeed, I never saw her outside of public areas. But every single performance in town, every charity event and fundraiser, every piano bar and cabaret…she was there. And not there in a quiet way, slipping in…no. You always knew when Mary Jo entered a room. It was usually preceded by a loud “Everybody can kiss my ass”. I had never heard it used affectionately before.

When I began to sing at the Key Piano Bar, she was there. We always had her Bailey’s ready for her. Mark Watson and I used to laugh at a story about her. When accused by someone of being drunk she indignantly replied. “I am NOT drunk. I don’t drink.” When the glass of Baileys was pointed out to her she replied. “There is no alcohol in Bailey’s, and I’m not drunk…I’m just tired!” To which Mark quipped, “I went out last night and was EXHAUSTED by the time I got home. I was so tired I can’t remember a thing!” Mary Jo looked him in the eyes and said, “Kiss my ass, Mark!”

When life treated her bad, she kept flipping it off. I saw her fight and battle cancer, coming to Tea Dance hours after finishing a Chemo treatment…dancing away. She refused to give in. I know that she is in Heaven, because the Devil wouldn’t have her…she would have taken his job.

I just can’t think of Key West without that titanic woman. In a city full of characters she stood out on her own. She was the most loyal of friends and advocates, and the fiercest of critics when it came to ‘bullshit’. Years ago, again in the By George Bar, and probably with Pat and Deb playing and singing, she and I had a conversation about her past. It was the only time that she opened up to me in that way. I found out that she had tried to the “done” thing, and had married a military officer. I was correct in my first impression of her having a military side. She spent years trying to play the dutiful military wife, but in the end her own character was too strong to fit into that stereotype. I can only imagine what the other officer’s wives thought about her and her drive for truthfulness in the face of mediocrity and tradition.

Mary Jo, wherever you are, I wish I had known you better, but I am so grateful for the knowledge of you that I have.

R.I.P Mary Jo….