New Year's Eves At The Legendary Shaboo Inn

 

Updated: 8/3/22

In the late-1970s, New Years Eve was synonymous with the legendary Shaboo Inn in Mansfield, for myself and a group of friends from West Hartford. The Shaboo Inn operated from 1971 until 1982, and regularly hosted shows by the top rock and blues acts in the U.S. 

Although I don't remember the exact lineups for each year, we were treated to live shows by various combinations of the James Cotton Blues Band,  NRBQ and the James Montgomery Blues Band.

 I seem to remember the Fabulous Rhinestones being there at least once, but I may be mistaken. Altogether, I think I celebrated New Year's Eve at Shaboo either three or four times.

One of the owners of the Shaboo Inn was David "Lefty" Foster, who was also a member of the Mohegan Sun All-Stars band for many years.

Back then, is when I started really drinking heavily. Massive amounts of alcohol. To excess. Regularly.

One year, there were eight or ten of us sitting together at Shaboo and at one point, a plastic party hat was passed around the table. Everyone poured a little bit of what they were drinking into the hat, and everything was mixed together. Then, the hat was passed around again, and everybody, myself included, took multiple sips or gulps from it. That's the last thing I remember from that night.

The Velours and the Rock Velours played either two or three New Year's Eve shows at the former Song Hays restaurant on Asylum Street in downtown Hartford in the early-1990s. As a member of the band, I think the gigs were generally pretty excellent, but the massive amounts of free band-beer that I consumed obliterated a lot of the details.

This year, as with most recent ones, my drink of choice is diet A&W root beer, and I'm quite happy with it. 

The Shaboo Inn actually maintains a Facebook page, and on that page, there is a listing of the diverse musical acts that performed there.

These include Eric Burdon, Canned Heat, Wishbone Ash, David Bromberg, Bonnie Raitt, Charlie Daniels, Quicksilver Messenger Service, John Mayall, Freddie King, Albert King, B.B. King, Journey, The Police, Commander Cody, Suzi Quatro, the Cars, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher.

Could the Shaboo Inn exist and survive in today's world? With the health pandemic persisting, live rock music shows are not nearly as plentiful as pre-pandemic days.The days of paying $10 at the door to see national recording acts is now but a memory, and there really isn't much of a rock music scene to work with anymore. 

On the flip side of the equation, there are probably plenty of established artists out there who want to get back on the road, and wouldn't mind playing small, lower-paying venues.

Tony Joe White - Polk Salad Annie

Mind Over Matter

                                                                                                                                 Updated August 2022

When it comes to blisteringly hot lead guitar work, Texas-based blues-rock legend Johnny Winter sits at the head of the class. Born in Texas in 1944, Johnny Winter consistently presented the world with his own form of blues-rock until he passed away on July 16, 2014.

In 1970, Johnny Winter formed a new band named Johnny Winter And with former members of the McCoy's ("Hang on Sloopy"). The group featured Connecticut-favorite Rick Derringer on guitar.  

Among Johnny Winter's outstanding albums are Johnny Winter And Live, Second Winter, 1973's classic Still Alive & Well, John Dawson Winter III, Guitar Slinger and Hey, Where's Your Brother?

Johnny Winter was one of the few rock/blues guitarists who had such a distinctive style, you knew it was them playing after hearing just a few notes. Carlos Santana, John Lee Hooker, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King and Robbie Kreiger of the Doors are among the members of that class.

Although Johnny Winter's rapid-fire finger work on the guitar is legendary, he was also a top-rate slide-guitarist.

Johnny Winter's brother, Edgar Winter, is also an internationally known rock musician. As the leader of the Edgar Winter Group, he is well-known for his funky, instrumental "Frankenstein," as well as "Tobacco Road" and "Free Ride." 

Prior to forming the Edgar Winter Group, Edgar was the leader of Edgar Winter's White Trash, which released the classic live album Roadwork. Many, many times, Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo and the 17:13 version of Tobacco Road have blasted from the different stereos I've owned.

In 1970, Edgar Winter released his Entrance solo album. In 1972, the hugely successful They Only Come Out at Night" album was released by the Edgar Winter Group.

In  April 1984, I had the opportunity to attend a live Edgar Winter concert at the former Agora Ballroom in West Hartford, Connecticut. I think I was pretty trashed, but I do remember Edgar putting on a great show, especially with his saxophone work. The highlight of the night was when the band performed a scorching version of "Frankenstein."

Both Edgar Winter and Johnny Winter's musical contributions maintain a real sense of exceitement and timelessness that make them as vital and entertaining as ever.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cheerios Taste So Good, You'll Flip Out

If you're a fan of chocolate, peanut butter and/or cereal, there's a good chance you would enjoy eating chocolate-peanut -flavored Cheerios. This cereal  possesses a mellow flavor that tastes very similar to a really good mocha flavor.

The chocolate peanut butter variety is just one of more than 15 varieties of Cheerios, and I can say from experience that some are better than others. Among the other flavors of Cheerios that are now available apple cinnamon, dulce de leche, honey nut, multigrain dark chocolate crunch, protein cinnamon almond and banana nut.

Great Taste
Neither of the two main flavors in this product overpowers the other, making it a very pleasant cereal to eat. When I eat a Reeses's Peanut Butter cup and, it tastes like chocolate-accented peanut butter. When I eat Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios, it tastes more like peanut butter-accented chocolate. 

The mellow flavor of this cereal makes it a not only a pleasing breakfast item, but also a pretty excellent snack to eat while you're watching the King of Queens, for example.

Nutritional Facts

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios contain 120 calories per serving, and 12 vitamins and minerals are included. Each serving also includes four grams of protein, and nine grams of sugars.  

Price

The regular retail price charged for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios is the same as the other varieties of the cereal. In August 2022, the average price is about $3.99.

Appearance/Texture

The individual pieces of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios are two different colors. I guess the dark brown pieces are supposed to represent the chocolate, and the beige pieces are the peanut butter part. While the cereal is indeed fun to eat, like other Cheerios varieties, it can become soggy pretty quickly. 

Overall Rating

General Mills scores high with this pleasing variety of Cheerios. If you're a peanut butter or chocoate fan, chances are good you'll dig this groovy product.

On a flavor scale of one through ten, I would assign this product a rating of nine.

Dead Flowers Rolling Stones

Since I was about 10 years old, I've been a fan of the Rolling Stones. While I've always liked the Beatles, the Stones have always better represented the whole rock and roll experience to me.

 Although I've heard it in reference to other people, I would think that if you looked-up the word "cool" in a dictionary, there would be a photos of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Dead Flowers was originally released on the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers" album, which featured an actual working, pants zipper. Without fail, every time I hear Dead Flowers, I think of an older woman who turned me on to the song in the 1970s. It reminds me of how quickly the years go by.

Of all the fantastic songs the Rolling Stones have released, "Dead Flowers" is one of my very favorites. Although the lyrics and topic are pretty dark and not the most optimistic, the country-tinged vocals and driving refrain are quite memorable.

There is actually a Wikipedia page for the Dead Flowers song. On that page, Mick Jagger is quoted as saying that Dead Flowers is a country song. Interestingly, in addition to great guitar work by Mick Taylor and Keith Richards, Mr. Jagger plays acoustic guitar and supplies lead vocals on the song. The song's excellent piano work is provided by Ian Stewart.

Sticky Fingers was an enormously successful album, and the working pants-zipper was quite controversial when the album was released in April 1971. 

The Stones' "Brown Sugar" song is the lead song on Sticky Fingers. Some of the other songs on the album include Moonlight Mile, Sister Morphine, I Got The Blues and Wild Horses.

While I do own quite a few Rolling Stones albums, I don't think Sticky Fingers is one of their stronger efforts. Their 1969 album, Let It Bleed, to me, is a more upbeat and all-around better assortment of songs. 

Strange In The Night-At Bishop's Corner

When I was a kid, my family lived near the Bishops Corner shopping center in West Hartford. The four-part Bishops Corner shopping area has lots of different commercial tenants than the ones who were there in the late 1960s and '70s.

A Walgreens pharmacy now sits where a Finast supermarket used to be. Next to the supermarket were an S&H green stamps store, a Friendly's restaurant where my friends and I would leave open ketchup packets on the floor and watch people step on them, and a Bradlees department store.

In the northeast section of the shopping center sits a BIG Y supermarket. When I was a kid, the store was known as Grand Union supermarket, then it became a Waldbaum's Food Mart supermarket for many years. The store has been operating as a Big Y outlet for quite a few years now.

When I worked for Mobile Redemptions as a truck driver for more than a decade, the Bishop's Corner Waldbaum's store was one of the more challenging stores on my route. After taking the deposit bottles and cans out of the store for numerous years, I went to work for Waldbaums-Bishops Corner for a few months.

For about the past three years, the Bishop's Corner Big Y has been the supermarket that I shop at most frequently.  Last night, I stopped to take a couple of drags from a smoke outside the store, and suddenly, a short, somewhat-unkempt-looking man came walking up to where I was standing. The man was holding a pair of dark-colored work boots in his hands.

The man looked at me and just said "Wolverines?" He said "Look, good condition, I'll sell them to you, cheap."

All I could say was "no, man." The guy didn't press the situation any further, and I finished the cigarette. The last I saw, he was talking to another customer. I certainly don't want to think that the guy was selling his own boots. Maybe he found them somewhere.  Yeah, that's the ticket.

Asylum Street Really Solidifies Its Position As The Top Street In Downtown Hartford in 2022

When I was a little kid, in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, the famous Hartford jeweler Bill Savitt used to do radio commercials advertising his landmark Asylum Street store in the heart of downtown Hartford. I remember once hearing Savitt's jewelry store tagline of "35 seconds from Main" in a radio commercial. Being far from the swiftest student, I initially thought that the commercial was referring to the state of Maine.

Approximately three or four years ago, the Sam's Quick-Stop convenience store opened at the top of Asylum Street, next to Burger King, at the corner of Main Street.

                                                    

                                          

Lots of Food Choices

Ever since Papa's Pizza on Union Place closed several years back, downtown Hartford was experiencing a real lack of tasty, affordable pizza slices and pies. Enter Ranch House Pizza, located at 17 Asylum Street in downtown Hartford.

So far, I have purchased and eaten pizza slices from Ranch House at least six times, and I purchased one small pie.  I'm pleased to say that the food has been great every time. The pizza leans toward Greek-style, with a delicious, slightly-sweet red sauce, creamy mozzarella cheese and fresh toppings.

               

                          

Ranch House Pizza has an extensive dine-in and takeout menu, and has a full bar on the premises.  Service is fast and friendly, and prices are reasonable. If you're hungry for a really good pizza pie, head on down to 17 Asylum Street. Open seven days a week.

Approximately a year and a half ago, I read about a new food store coming to the former location of CVS Pharmacy at the intersection of Main and Pearl Streets in downtown Hartford. Since I'm always interested in any new food-oriented spots opening in the city, and I regularly visit a nearby bank, I have periodically observed the progress being made there.

Update: Summer 2022- The much-awaited, large food store that was inhabiting the former CVS location has closed. Unfortunately, the lack of business downtown due to the health pandemic has created this big loss. 

At the northeast corner of Asylum Street and Trumbull Street, a new restaurant/bar named Four Dad's Pub opened in early 2022. The location formerly housed McKinnon's restaurant and bar, and back in the 1970s, I'm pretty sure the upscale Brownstone Restaurant was situated in the front part of the building in the 1970s. 

As part of my chef apprenticeship with the Associated Restaurants of Connecticut, I had the opportunity to work at the Brownstone, as well as Frank's and the Marble Pillar. I've read some great things about the meatball grinders at Four Dads Pub, so I may have to revisit the Beownstone building soon.

The creamery restaurant located in the former Dunkin Donuts spot on Asylum Street has been open for a couple of years now, and they seem to be doing okay. The owners of the restaurant also own Sam's convenience store, just a few doors down Asylum Street.

The esteemed Max Downtown restaurant continues to be a standard-setter for fine dining in downtown Hartford. A couple of blocks further down Asylum Street, Fornarelli's serves a full menu of Italian favorites.

Further Down Asylum

At Black-Eyed Sally's Southern Kitchen & Bar, the kitchen is still producing tasty barbecue and Southern food, and the bar is a popular socializing spot. At night, the restaurant generally provides live music several nights a week.

A wide range of musical genres are represented at Black-Eyed-Sally's. Local, regional and national rock acts perform there on a regular basis, and people of all ages regularly patronize this classic Hartford restaurant and nightspot.

Near the corner of Asylum and Ann Ucello Streets, the NY Market & Deli is the place to go for all sorts of sandwiches, snacks, hot and cold foods and convenience store items.

One of the most well-known streets in Hartford, Asylum Street has long been the home of interesting businesses, and has re-invented itself numerous times.

Next week, I have a month-long painting exhibit opening at the East Hartford Public Library, and I'm going to make a real effort to stop downtown to order a meatball grinder to-go from Four Dads Pub. Yee-haw.

American Flag Sweatshirts, Drinking Vermouth and Clowning-Around on Gymnasium Roofs are Not Appreciated at Parochial Schools

                                                                                                                                     Updated on   8/9/22

In 1971, Carly Simon's "Anticipation," "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin, and Sly and the Family Stone's

 "Family Affair" were at the top of the popular music charts. When those songs were released, I was a little hippie attending 7th grade at St. Thomas the Apostle school in West Hartford, Connecticut. Our teachers were mostly nuns, as was the principal.

A strict dress code was in place at Saint Thomas. Gray pants, a white shirt, school-maroon tie, brown or black shoes, and certain colors of socks were required every day for male students. For female students, the required school uniform consisted of a gray ? skirt, white blouse and maybe some type of neckwear.

At that time, my favorite place anywhere was Irv Jeffrie's Music Town in West Hartford Center. As the town's first 'head shop' and purveyor of all sorts of counter-culture merchandise,  Music Town was the coolest store I had ever seen.

A Bess Eaton donut shop was situated next door to Irv Jeffrie's store, and I think it was when I was with my Dad, picking up donuts at Bess Eaton, that I became aware of this far-out place just next-door.

At Irv Jeffrie's store, I first heard of Canned Heat, who have been my favorite musical act for decades now. "On The Road Again" was playing in the store when my Dad and I went there for the first time.  That was the first song I heard by Canned Heat, and it instantly resonated with me.

It was at the Music Town store where I saw a lightweight sweatshirt that was designed to look like an American flag. Even though I was only in junior high, I was reading Abbie Hoffman books, and listening to Bob Dylan and Country Joe and the Fish. I really wanted that American flag shirt.

My Parents weren't big fans of the American flag shirt, but I think it was my big Christmas present that year. I do remember my Parents reminding me that I couldn't wear the shirt to school. Stupid kid that I was, I wore the shirt to school underneath my white shirt and maroon tie within a couple of weeks of receiving it.

I'm not sure what I was anticipating by removing my mandatory white shirt and tie before walking into my homeroom. When the nun/teacher saw my attire, she wasn't happy.  In my adolescent mind, I was making some sort of revolutionary statement. The teacher didn't want to know about any sort of statement. Right away, I was told to go to the Principal's office.

The head nun/school principal and I were already acquainted, due to my being caught smoking a cigarette on school grounds, after school. The length of my hair was also an issue with the administration. She called my Father at work, and I think he had to come and get me. That didn't make my Dad happy.

There was another incident, where I stole a bottle of vermouth from my Parents' liquor cabinet, and brought it to our seventh-grade dance. That was the first time I drank alcohol, and even though the vermouth made me sick, I loved it.

As punishment for violating the parochial school's dress code, I had to work in the school office for an hour or two, every schoolday, for a few weeks. Shortly after the American flag shirt issue was resolved, a female student at St. Thomas who was actually my girlfriend, locked me out on the roof of the school gymnasium as a joke, after I went out there on a dare.

The students and teachers in classrooms on that side of the building could see me clowning-around on the roof, and the head nun had the school custodian unlock the window so I could get back in.

My Parents had to come back to the school for another meeting with the school administration, and it was requested that I end my affiliation with the educational institution. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Updated on 8/9/22

Yes, We Have Bananas, Kellogg's Raisin Bran with Bananas, That Is

A few months, ago, I first saw an ad for Kellogg's Raisin Bran with bananas, and instantly wanted to try the product. My Father, Joe, loved eating raisin bran, and from him I learned how good a bowl of raisin bran, milk and sliced bananas can be.

When I had a load of groceries delivered from Shop-Rite a few weeks ago, I made sure to order a box of Kellogg's Raisin Bran with bananas. After finishing an already-opened box of the excellent blueberry Cheerios, I eagerly opened the raisin bran with bananas.

While I wasn't expecting gummy bear-soft banana slices in the cereal, I also wasn't expecting the fairly-hard slices that are part of this product. The banana slice appear to be the dried variety and they really don't give off much flavor.

After looking forward to eating Kellogg's Raisin Bran with bananas since the first time I saw it, I have to say that I'm kind of disappointed with the overall product. Once again, anticipation is just as good as, if not better than the goal.

                                                        An Overall Good Product

If the banana slices are moistened, they can soften-up a little, but if you add too much liquid, you run the risk of over-saturating the bran flakes, resulting in a soggy mess.

The Kellogg's Raisin Bran with Bananas is not a bad product; in fact, I would definitely try it again. If the banana slices were just a little softer, I'd eat this cereal regularly.

Lots of  people who are already fans of  Kellogg's Raisin Bran will probably like this product, as will people who are into all things banana. 

Nutrition

Kellogg's Raisin Bran with bananas contains 200 calories when served with 3/4 cup of skim milk. The cereal contains two grams total fat, 0 mg of cholesterol and 0 mg of sodium. Additionally, the cereal contains 46 grams total carbohydrates, five grams of dietary fiber, 17 grams total sugars and three grams of protein per one-cup serving.

Price

The average price charged for one 15.9 ounce box of Kellogg's Raisin Bran cereal with Bananas is approximately $4.59. With eight servings in the box, that works out to roughly $0.58c per serving.

Availability

While the Kellogg's Raisin Bran with Bananas may be a tasty and interesting cereal, that doesn't mean it's easy to find. Since the beginning of the health pandemic, it's become increasingly difficult to find the item.

"Birdland" and "Pancake People" Are Just a Couple of my Fun Paintings