Comin' Home
Jeff Skolnik
I promised Jeff M. that if I got to go the blues club on the south-
side that I would let him know....
this is so special that I want to share with all y'all....
Thursday night was great, playing at Kingston Mines. It's always
special to come home and to play with my friend Charlie.
Tonight however, there was no scheduled show, so we got together to go
club hopping at a few clubs and do some playing.
We went to the new Checkerboard in Hyde Park. I did get to play,
getting up on a stage that had photos of Carey Bell and Junior Wells
on each side of the stage....kind of a tribute and message all in one
to any harp players who dare to get up on that fabled stage.....play
well or don't play here.
It was tremendous....the people were into what we were doing and we
had a great time....
But then we went down to Lee's Unleaded Blues Club, on 74th Street
down in South Chicago.
This was surreal to me....much like the daze I was in walking to
Maggiano's thinking I would run into the South-Siders the night we all
met up for the first time by Blue Chicago last May...
I kept seeing the shdaows of us as children running through the
nieghborhood and as we stopped in front of the club, it was asif those
children all stpped and looked up at me, as an adult, and like a scene
out of Peter Pan, it was going to be alright.
I've been in a hundred blues clubs all over the world, but to come
home and go into one in the neighborhood we grew up in, was like going
into a club for the first time. The Checkerboard, with all its
history did scrarpe on it, but walking into Lee's Unleaded Blues Club
was truly under the skin.
Friendly people, felling the effect of the music and the drink,
recognizing my friend Charlie and looking at me with curiousity...we
sat, greeted and waited until they called us up.
Charlie brought the band down and asked,'Hey Jeff! What was it you
were telling me earlier?'
It was like plugging a cord into the power source, y'all....'My name
is Jeff Stone and I grew up 20 blocks from here and so happy to be
playing for my hometown, neighborhood folks...' They all applauded
and acknowledged and when we played (two songs) they danced they moved
with us, they grooved with us....as I looked into the audience as I
played, I kept seeing the shadows of us as children, dancing and
smiling along wiith the grown patrons of the club; everyone together,
past and present, a true metamorphosis of a time past with the time
present....
So much of all that (with the help of this group and this e-space) has
been going on within me is like a full-circle healing that has somehow
culminated with last weekend's service for my mother,
as maybe the end of a few mourning periods and the paths of many
healing periods and with God's grace, is now onto the path of life
that is beyond the grieving and the living as a result of, and living
dealing with stuff, and the dictation of the past rather than the
development of the future.
My house (both internally and externally) is seriously getting in
order and the walls of protection and defense are gone.
The holy spirit keeps talking to me internally and through prayer he
is answering me, with blessings and with advise and with direction.
For me, I couldn't drive the future without first recognizing the sins
and the issues of my past.
Choosing to honor my mother last week instead of focusing on all the
things we didn't get or recieve and the ultimate life effect of not
having such, was not to be mixed in with last week...that was a time
of celebration of who my mother was and to be thankful for what she
was able to provide...last weekend was a time of release.
I thank you, my dear friends for the indulgence you have all given to
me throughout this e-space and for the phone conversations and for the
get togethers. I realize and accept that this as a self-serving need
that fulfills within me a barrenness that is no longer empty. That I
look to this space as one of those shadows of the children staring up
at me as an adult.
I pray that we have no disappointed shadows, only shadows that look up
in amazement and wonder that however it was that from a 11-12 year-old
child searching for answers that they haven't quite figured out how to
ask as yet, that as they stare into the adult versions of ourselves
looking back down, that there restores in these children versions of
our selves, the hopes, dreams and determination to be happy with whom
we have become. That, just as I looked down 74th street towards
Jeffery Manor, that my fathers' Ford Fairlane would be once again
coming to pick me up, or my mother coming with my uncle(she never
drove) to pick me up....or the bus station to wait for the bus to take
me down to 98th and Merrill...that the shadow would fade through the
night's illumination and step closer to and then blend into my form,
to once again become one with who I was and where I come from and who
I truly am.
May God love and bless you all...I know I do.
Jeff S.
Lee Rothman
What can one say. Your heartfelt and detailed description of your
recent experience in those clubs on the South Side were so accurate
and tactile I felt I was there with you. Being a musician I can well
understand your enthusiasm. I"m certainly delighted you were well
received. It drives home the fact we are ALL children of the same
creator, and when you put that great vibe out there it was echoed back
to you. For me visiting this site as well as the South Shore site has
allowed me to revisit some long misplaced memories which I too feel
needed revisiting. May YHVH continue to bless you with the needed
healing and I wish you continued success in your musical efforts.
Lee R.