TRUE STORIES: Rock and roll (like burgers and fries) never dies

Last Saturday night I was sitting next to Jon Bartlow at the 505 club on Broadway — as close as I could to the bandstand to get a face full of rock and roll — when a spontaneous laugh came over the sound system.

 Jon turned to me and said with a big smile, “I love it when Sherman laughs like that!”

 “Yeah, me too,” I replied. “It’s the same infectious, joyful laugh I first heard Saturday nights nearly fifty years ago at the Roadhouse.”

 Make no mistake about it, the number one place to be hereabouts on a Saturday night in the late 1960s was southeast of town at the Roadhouse — a dance hall tucked back in the woods off Country Club Road — moving and grooving to the sounds of the Gass Company.

 Not that the evening would usually start there.

 I’d first hang out with friends, have a couple of beers and play a game of pool at O’Hara’s Recreation in the Republic of Frontenac.

 Some nights I’d pick up Linda in Dunkirk and we’d catch the 7 o’clock show — maybe “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” or “Goodbye Columbus” — at the Colonial Fox. Others we might get something to eat at Argentina’s or Ned’s.

 Of course we’d listen to Top 40 AM radio in the car. Most times Kansas City’s own 710 WHB “The World’s Happiest Broadcasters” with Johnny Dolan (‘Rollin with Dolan’), Phil Jay (‘Uncle Phil’s Filthy Files’) and the adventures of Chicken Man (“He’s everywhere. He’s everywhere.”)

The latest rhythm and blues, rock and roll, surf rock, soul, Motown sound and British invasion would blare from the radio as we drove to the dance in my ’62 Chevy with the baby moon hubcaps.

 John Gobetz, who operated the Roadhouse, would meet us at the door and collect a dollar apiece admission. (A friend of my older brother’s he’d always throw in a little teasing as well.)

 Then it was find a table, do a little visiting — or taunting and teasing — and go to the bar for set ups to make highballs with the half pint of whiskey purchased from Falletti’s Liquor Store by an over 21 friend.
 At 9 o’clock the band would start.

 With Jon Sherman on drums and lead vocals, Marc Marcano on keyboards, Walt Kennett on bass, and Tim Henson on lead guitar, the Gass Company drummed, grooved, picked, jammed and harmonized the crowd into a state of rock and roll joy.

 I always wanted to be one of the first on the dance floor … with plenty of room to cut loose and whirl, shake, rotate, boogie, bop and skip to the beat.

 Some dances we danced apart. Others together. My favorite was our together combination jitterbug and rock and roll; a symbiotic bond of rhythm in which we ecstatically entered the music. (Truth is, I’m now spoiled to the point that I really don’t care to dance with anyone else as it’s not even close to the same feeling.)

 Summer or winter I’d find myself happily drenched with sweat after the last dance. Some nights we’d stop for burgers and Suzy-Qs at the 1106 Drive-In; the lot full of ebullient teenagers ordering from the speaker phones; eating off the hoods of their cars; laughing and teasing and reliving the night’s escapades as the soon-to-be-classic, chrome-fendered Mustangs and 57 Chevys and old family station wagons honked and squealed and surged in and out from Broadway.

 The 1106 was operated by Bob Morris, who’d spent the previous ten years managing another classic drive-in, The White Grill on 18th and Broadway.

 Speaking of which, a White Grill Rock Reunion, organized by Jon Sherman and Ken Waltrip, is planned from 4 p.m. to midnight Nov. 10 at the Frontenac Community Center.

They’ll be serving burgers and fries using the old White Grill recipe.

 The reunion will also feature the Seibrings, a band that preceded the Gass Company at the legendary Tower Ballroom in the early to mid 1960s.

Since the Seibrings were managed by my older cousin, Joe Fowler, I was able to get in when I was only 15 years old. It was a pretty rowdy place, with several fights a night, but another older cousin, Tom Stelle, was the bouncer — so I could have a beer and safely hang out at the Tower even though I was underage. Teenage rock and roll bliss.

 Just as the Roadhouse was the place to be when the Gass Company was there in later years, the Tower Ballroom was the place to be when the Seibrings played in the early to mid 60s — with Dawson Braden on drums, Bob Stalcup on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, George Parker on saxophone, Walt Kennett on bass and Dick Feller on lead guitar. (Terry Close played lead guitar at an earlier point.)
 At one time, there were dances at the Tower on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights — plus Sunday afternoon. It was rock and roll heaven.

 Sadly, the Roadhouse and Tower are both gone.

But not so the Gass Company and Seibrings, who will be taking us back to 60s rock and roll from 4 p.m. to midnight Nov. 10 at the Frontenac Community Center.

 The White Grill and 1106 are gone too but, if Ken Waltrip has his way, not their legendary burgers and fries, which will be served at the gathering. “We want to prepare the burgers and fries the way they were cooked in those days.”

 To top it off, the Rollin’ Nostalgia Car club will bring their show of restored, classic, chrome-fendered cars to the Community Center parking lot.

 I’m looking to dance, eat burgers and fries, sit in a ’55 Chevy like the one I learned to drive in back in 1963, turn on the AM radio ... and search through the static for the Phil Jay show on WHB.
 
J.T. Knoll is a writer, speaker and prevention and wellness coordinator at Pittsburg State University. He also operates Knoll Training & Consulting in Pittsburg. He can be reached at 231-0499 or jtknoll@swbell.net