The Birthday Party

Yesterday I had the good fortune to attend a birthday party. Not just any birthday party, it was a birthday party for Curley Courville. Curley was turning 87 and his friends Tony and Karen Fuselier threw the bash. In attendance were Jesse Domingue and Andrew Cormier,both long-time Cajun/Country musicians in the Southeast Texas area. Jesse did not bring his guitar,but Andrew brought both of his "squeeze boxes." Cajun acordions for those of you that aren't familiar with "squeeze boxes."



Before Curley arrived, Jesse and Andrew entertained us with stories of the old days, the 50's and 60's music scene in our part of the world. They played the old Yvonne's Club in Beaumont when it was a popular place to go dance. Yvonne's even had dances on Sunday afternoon that were televised locally. Andrew played the club when it was the Blue Jean Club, that's going back. The Rodair Club on the highway out of Port Acres was a Cajun place. The music was mostly Cajun with Swamp Pop and a little country. Jesse and Andrew played there and the Music Box across the highway. The Sparkle Paradise in Bridge City was a place that was always crowded and was known for good music. They both had stories about those clubs and more. There were stories about the people that ran the clubs, the other musicians and of course each other.



Jesse told a story about he and Andrew writing a song one night after playing several hours and drinking a lot. Jesse said, "it was a damn good song, but the next day neither one of us could remember it." They talked and laughed and we listened and laughed and all the while Andrew was making music on the squeeze box. Tony kept trying to push food and drink on everyone. People were coming in and the party was getting ready to start.



Curley showed up, still spry at 87. He is a very nice man, retired from a refinery since 1981, he's spent a lot of time fishing and hunting, took vacations to Hawaii every two years "for a long time" after he retired. He was very pleased with the show of affection for him and was enjoying all the stories too. Jesse told how they hung the nickname "Flat Tire" on Curley. Jesse was the manager of an auto supply store and Curley came in and bought three tires. Jesse asked him why he bought only three and Culey told him that he bought one tire from Sears and only needed three. Sometime later Jesse was playing at a club, he didn't say where, and someone told him that Curley was on the phone, was in Florida on vacation and had a flat tire and wanted to know if Jesse could help him get an adjustment on it. "I went flying off the bandstand and went flying to the phone to give Curley hell and when I grabbed the phone there was nobody there, I'd been set up by Curley." Jesse said. Jesse started calling Curley "Flat Tire" and the name has been with him ever sense.



There was more food than the crowd could ever eat and a huge birthday cake and lots of drinks. It was a great party for Curley and everyone there. I asked Tony why he was giving the party and he looked me square in the eye and said, "because he's my friend." these are good people and good friends to each other and it was easy to see how much they truly cared for one another.



Tony told me later that "you treat good people good", that's a wonderful way to live and it shows why Tony and Karen have been succesful with their furniture business also.



Why was I there? I was asked to cover the party for the local newspaper that I write for and the staff photographer was there to take photos for the paper. These friends have a lot of firends.