Over the last few days, I've been "cleaning up" my computer...the hard drive, the desktop, the piles of CDs, notes, folded-up set lists, birthday cards, magazines, books, DVDs, videos, tools, nick-nacks, sunglasses, lotto tickets, phone lists, get the picture? Anyway, I found this picture sitting in the lower left-hand corner of my desktop. My Aunt Rosebud gave it to me a couple of weeks before she died a few years back. It's my grandfather's band, the KFUL Orchestra, playing live on the radio during Prohibition-era Galveston at the Buccaneer Hotel on Seawall Boulevard. He's the banjo player with a guitar sitting next to him in the background, Lee R. McLendon. I was totally floored when Aunt Rosebud gave me that picture. All my life I had been asking myself where all this music came from that was flowing out of me non-stop. I couldn't stop even if I wanted to...Well, as Aunt Rosebud told me, "There you are, right there..". "Mac" was at the top of his game during those years, Galveston was the Las Vegas of the South. He played the hot spots every night. The Maceo Syndicate owned the Balinese Room, built 500 feet over the Gulf of Mexico and the only way to get there was on the walkway. My grandmother was the hat-check girl at the entrance. She had a button she'd step on when the cops showed up on Seawall Boulevard. By the time they got to the club, the slot machines, roulette wheel, blackjack tables and cash bar were gone and the prayer meeting was in full swing...lively, romantic days to be sure, but an uncovered secret dalliance with a beauty shop operator got Mac kicked out of Franny's (my grandmother's) house and the 4 girls: Rosebud, Violet, Pansy and Fern, grew up without their daddy. Franny took it to the extreme...she refused to accept child support and wouldn't allow Mac to visit the girls. Grandpa Luitich took 'em in and cared for them until they were all grown up and married off' I only got to hang out with Mac 3 times...the last time he was kinda fussy and I guess homesick...he had moved to California and he had a new life out there with a wife and kids (I have an uncle and an aunt who are younger than me)...overall, it was a wonderful party, but not without its ups and downs. I just wanted to post this picture and share this moment of incredible reality with my friends here. I found out 3 years ago that this is literally where I'm coming from. Thanks for giving me this picture, Aunt Rosebud. Enjoy! Cheers, WC1
man i am drooling over that 56.. i have a sign hanging in the 1-man shop ;like this one only it is 2-tone red/white as the one you took the photo of.... i guess if i was born 16 days later i would have a 57 hanging in there 
but tell that guy i love that car and the coke trailer is cool also 
