Taking a Break from Writing: Harley and Guitars

Cathy Moser, Bob Ekstrand and Erik Lillestol at Dusty's BarI had a good feeling about taking the day off from writing on Thursday when I stood in line with the Harley Man at the doctor’s office. That, and later that night when my husband and I pulled up to Dusty’s Bar in Northeast Minneapolis.

As much as you might try and succeed at keeping a daily writing habit, you’ve got to take a day off once in a while. Last Thursday, case in point.

Since I had a doctor appointment, I went ahead and took the whole day off from my regular writing routine. Getting poked in more ways than one would not normally inspire me, but while I stood in line at the appointment desk, a new character for my story appeared from the exam rooms and stood behind me. I’m a tall woman at five feet, ten inches, but he towered over me somewhere around six feet, four and hardly fussed while waiting in the long line. He wore a leather jacket with Harley Davidson embossed on the back, clean, crisp Levis and cowboy boots with ornate silver plates nailed to the back of the heels. He sported a trimmed salt and pepper goatee and curly shoulder-length hair tied neatly behind his balding head. I’ll call him my Harley Man.

Harley Man will usurp my current ho-hum supporting character, the Honda Guy in the story I’m working on right now. Imagine: It’s October and just started to snow along Minnesota’s north shore. An average-looking middle-aged IT guy on a Honda Goldwing stops to offer a ride to an attractive Latina woman who’s neglected to keep enough gas in her Jeep Cherokee—no, no, no. Honda Guy just won’t do.

Imagine my Harley man instead: A rumble approaches from behind the woman. A beating bass drum jars her heart. It startles her at first, but triggers a primal sense of comfort. Harley Man pulls up side by side to her stalled Jeep, leans over and taps his leathered fist on the glass... Oh, yeah. Goodbye Honda Guy. Hel-lo Harley Man.

Okay, so letting my mind drift while waiting in line at the clinic helped me spice up my story, what about after the doctor’s visit at the bar that night?

I don’t make a habit of frequenting the neighborhood watering hole on weeknights nor am I especially fond of beer, but last night was exceptional in every way. For the longest time my friend and talented musician, Cathy, had invited me to hear her and her musical partner, Bob, play at Dusty’s on Marshall Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis. I finally made good on seeing my dear old friend on the coldest night of the season when the mercury dove below zero. I brought my husband with me and we ended up eaves dropping on an extremely talented jam session.

The BobCat duo’s guitar plucking and soprano siren pleased our ears, but soon the night turned into unimagined musical ear candy. Every now and then a man bundled in a parka came in through the door of the hole-in-the-wall bar, ordered a drink (or two or three) and found a vinyl-padded seat within the bar’s brown paneled décor. Each one gave a friendly wave to the bar keeper and other patrons. These were more than just your friendly neighbors stopping in for one before heading home…

 By the end of the night, three of those guys had a guitar, a bass fiddle, or a microphone in their hands and at one point the Bob-Cat duo had swelled to a strumming, crooning, harmonizing quintuplet crammed into the middle of the bar’s long narrow layout. Before my husband and I left, we’d heard various renditions of blues, jazz, folk, bluegrass, basso nova, calypso, and soft rock—all with a glass of dark New Castle in the palm of my hand. Who says you have to go to Glasgow or Dublin for soul-satisfying pub entertainment?

So today, with memories of BobCat and friends who so generously provided the spirited break I needed, I’m taking up my pen and beginning fresh with Harley Man—and what’s this? The snow is falling outside my window like flour from a sieve. Time to write!

Thanks goes to the BobCat duo, Cathy Moser on guitar, flute and vocals (Buffalo Gals) and  Bobby E. Ekstrand on guitar, and their special guests, Erik Lillestol on bass (Café Accordion Orchestra), Tom Craven on guitar, Maurice Jacox with vocals (Willie and the Bees) and Dean “Deano” Mikkelson on the archtop guitar.