Branson Day 4: The Show Must Go On

Picture this. August in Missouri. Nat King Cole is singing on the car radio. He's a big hit and it was still a few years before he got sick. The car has no air conditioning and it is hot - really hot. We are heading down Highway 66. The windows are all open and the hot wind swirls through the car. Dad is driving, as always. Mom is riding shotgun. In the back seat are two sweaty boys and a collie dog. The dog is shedding and drooling. The boys are sleepy since we left home at 4 AM. They are also covered in dog hair and drool. We are on our vacation. Usually the dog had a window seat and her head was hanging out the window. Sometimes she would climb up and lie on the shelf by the back window, which she filled to capacity, blocking the view from Dad's rear view mirror...he didn't seem to notice. Sometimes the dog got carsick. Sometimes I got carsick. My brother endured it all.

After many hours on the road we made it to our destination... Rockaway Beach. We would pull up at some house or office and my dad would pick up the keys to our rented "beach" house...usually a small cottage with a screened porch and some tall shade trees facing the lake just across the road. Those were good times and good memories...except for the last day of the trip when Mom would make us eat all the leftovers...or else. The "else" was that she would slap it on bread and we would have to eat it on the road.

Today I decided to make the fifteen-minute drive over to Rockaway Beach to see what was left. Some of it is still recognizable. Rockaway Beach is on Lake Taneycomo and went through some big changes and we were there when they were just starting. Table Rock Dam was completed in 1958 and the arrival of the cold water was not welcomed by the town. It was a lake resort with lots of bass fishing, water skiing and kids swimming at the beach. There were Skee-ball arcades and sort of a carnival flavor to the place back then. Cold water would change all that. Later it became sort of a rowdy place with lots of bikers and a few very memorable holiday weekends with near riots. There was a push for a casino a few years back but the voters said 'no'.

Today it is still there next to the lake. Even the old cabins and cottages are there and some of the arcades are there but converted or empty. There are still resorts and marinas but these are mostly for trout fisherman and not for beach-going families.  So much for memory lane.

Today was very hot and I was too after my short trip to Rockaway Beach and then a short foray on 'old' Branson's Main Street. After a quick lunch, I headed back to my condo to cool off for my next adventure.

My third show of the week was a chuck-wagon dinner show by The Sons of the Pioneers. I am not much of a country music fan but I like western music. Somehow "Western" was removed from the old category of "Country and Western" and things went downhill in my view. Western music still goes on...sometimes called Western Swing (or maybe Texas Swing) and it is enjoyable and sometimes funny or clever and it goes back a long way. The Sons of the Pioneers have been around since the 1930s and are in their 77th year. They were founded by a guy named Roy Rogers and have only had 33 musicians in all that time. One of the current members has been playing with the group for 44 years (Since Johnson was President -- "Which one?" they asked.)

The chuck-wagon dinner began at 4:15 and show started at 5 PM --- all in an outdoor covered pavilion in 98 degree heat. Being in the shade was nice and there was a nice breeze but it was still hot. I drank a gallon of lemonade by myself. The food was smoked brisket, chicken, potatoes, pinto beans, corn on the cob, biscuit and apple cobbler... a lot of food. This was a small crowd...maybe fifty people in the audience... but the show started on time after some corny jokes and cowboy poetry offered by the cook.

The "Sons" are six guys that play several instruments and sing. They all have a fairly long history with the group and a couple are pretty old. They started off with "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and a couple other songs. About fifteen minutes into the performance one of the older players was overwhelmed by the heat and staggered off stage to the alarm and consternation of the rest of the guys who played on but kept looking around for their missing guy. They had a short break while they figured out what happened and then started up again singing "Streets of Laredo" and another ominous song about the "gold mine in the sky". Then the ambulance arrived. They played on but were obviously out of synch and had to discuss what song to do next. The audience was also anxious and distracted by the ambulance. The sick guy was eventually taken away to the hospital and after the intermission they drafted the souvenir seller and had him join the group to fill in for the missing performer.

The second half of the show was a little slap-happy with some ad libs and spontaneous jokes along with the music. Shucks, what more could go wrong? It turns out that the sick performer is trying to recover from pancreatic cancer and is still pretty weak. He had to leave the show the previous day as well but won't stop performing.  In spite of the distraction it was a good show and I enjoyed it. I really didn't need to eat all that food.

After being out in the heat for almost five hours I went back home to stay cool for the evening.