My first encounter with The Boss was in Newark Airport. A short guy lugging a suitcase and a big acoustical guitar up to the check-in counter. He wasn’t The Boss then, and wouldn’t be for maybe another ten years. I knew a struggling musician when I saw one. I wouldn’t be working this airport job if I was a big singing star.
Trailing slightly behind him was a short, dark-haired woman also carrying a guitar.
Dressed in my red uniform, I could be a bitch. Back then people without power seldom exercised their bitch qualities. But in that airport (which happened to be my second job every day), thanks to my almost-ex-husband holding the money strings— I drove the hour and a half north up the parkway, put on the red uniform. That was after working 9 to 12 every morning at Betty’s travel agency.
If I was really tired, like that particular night, I could dish it out.
“So you’re a musician,” I said looking The Boss up and down.
He made a small laugh. “Yeah.”
“Well where do you play?”
The Boss mentioned some well known spots in Jersey. A few I had actually played at myself.
“Yeah I know Lock Stock & Barrel,” I said. What I didn’t say it was a try-out. That I snagged a guitarist friend and we did 3 sets for free. And even though I got a standing ovation from the bar crowd, after singing Jesse better than Janis Ian ever could in her dreams, I didn’t get the gig.
I was still really pissed about that.
“Let me see your tickets,” I said. They both looked grungy and tired themselves. “Pittsburgh? What’s in Pittsburgh?”
“I do weddings and bar mitzvahs when I can get them,” said The Boss.
Jesus, I was thinking, weddings and bar mitzvahs. I’d rather put on the damn red uniform for my bread.
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Susan Isla Tepper has a new Novel out titled “Hair of a Fallen Angel” from Spuyten Duyvil Books, NYC. A twenty-year writer, she’s authored 12 books of fiction and poetry and 5 stage plays. Youtube video for her new novel: https://youtu.be/W2HVIc4NrqY
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