When I was younger. Much younger, I might add, I was raising my son in Georgia. There was the normal 4th of July parades and get together and Labor Day Festivities but there was a thing in the neighboring town called “ May Day”. Let me tell you, when you are a struggling Mom with little money, you look for entertainment where you can find it.
I was pretty creative with looking for fun stuff to do with my kid. I looked in the paper for Grand Openings at car lots where you drew numbers from a hat to win some little something and there was always free cokes and hotdogs. There was also celebrations of some kind going on somewhere within a 30 mile radius. See, we didn’t have internet or cable back in those days. We had friends of course but Vietnam had been raging and most women my age were struggling at home with their own problems with their husbands or boyfriends overseas or coming home.
I had an apartment to keep up, two jobs I was working, begging for my child support and to this day his daddy died owing me over 40K. I had to do the best I could. On the weekends is where if we were going to do something other than watch whatever was on the tube or go to a movie that we had seen maybe a dozen times on dollar day, then we had to think up stuff. Few of us had cameras in those days. Even if we had polaroids, who could afford the film? Saturday was my day to clean house and in May in Georgia, it was still too cool to go swimming in the apartment swimming pool. I would get up, clean the apartment really clean and then go on the hunt for some entertainment.
I had looked in the paper and found May Day with arts and crafts and a band playing in the neighboring town. I got my little man ready and checked my wallet for about five dollars for gas that was out the roof in 1975 and I had a gas guzzler so I had to find some cheap entertainment for us.
My grandmother quilted and I had tons of quilts so I grabbed a quilt and made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and put them in a basket and away we went to May Day. We could walk around and look at arts and crafts and throw down my quilt and listen to whatever local band was playing while he could run and play with any kids that happened to be around. I could start working on a bit of a tan and just lay back and enjoy the day.
This day was different from any May Day I have ever attended or ever would again. I told you all in a previous diary years ago about one little lounge where Chubby Checker appeared for little or no money and he and I did the twist. This was the same town. I knew there was going to be a special rock guest that night at the little local club but I did not have money for that little gig. I was lucky I got to go to see Chubby Checker several months before. Babysitters cost money as well.
As I listened to the not so good local band playing Hanky Panky that sounded nothing like Tommy James and the Shondells but it was a band and I had just gobbled down a sandwich and had a gallon jug of tea and some ice in a small cooler I had brought. I had two plastic cups and as my 6 year old and me were sitting in a partially shaded area ( hard to find) I leaned back on my pocketbook and closed my eyes ). He liked to copy Mama so he laid back on the quilt as well. The day was very warm. Something caught my ear. The band was still not so hot but the deep rich voice made me open my eyes and think, “Wow that voice sounds just like, and I sat up and putting my hands over my eyes squinching, to get a look, I yelled , “That sounds ..oh my, that is, Brook Benton”. My son sat up and said, “ Who is that”? I grabbed my pocketbook as other people started heading for the bandstand as I was while several other musicians were taking over the instruments”. There was no way that little local band could play for this man. I knew. I had played at these kind of events for years in a local band when I was a teenager.
I was smiling from ear to ear. My son was having to almost run to keep up with my fast pace walking to get a better look as I heard, Rainy Night in Georgia coming from the bandstand and people applauding. There were hundreds applauding. I then heard Brook Benton say, “I got bored in the motel room and I got a show tonight but hey I wanted to sing for ya’ll today”. He was a bit inebriated, as he was staggering a bit but we were thrilled. There is no voice that could copy Brook Benton’s. He has a deep, rich, smooth voice of soul. He then started singing the Bo Weavel song. I was applauding like I was at a full concert, which I was and as he sang a few songs, he then left the stage. We were still applauding.
I went back to my quilt as clouds were gathering and I saw the Brook Benton tonight being taken down from the lounge sign on my way home. It was well known that he was fired for putting on a free show on May Day for us poor folks who wanted to attend his show but could not. I shook my head. I am sure people would have paid to see him if they could have afforded it. The owner of the lounge was really ticked off I heard.
Brooke Benton may have done 1000 shows after that, I don’t know but I know what he did that day for the people of Austell, Ga. was the mark of a true and passionate musican who wanted to simply entertain. I had more respect for him than almost if any other singer at that time.
I never forgot and the paper reported that he did step into May Day and his show that night was cancelled. I never went back to any show that little lounge ever had again. I heard they tore the place down about two years later after that May Day. Maybe other folks felt the same way that I did. Maybe just maybe, it was about entertaining people and not all about packing in a crowd for the almighty dollar.
I have told this story over the years many time and I just wish Brook Benton had known what it meant to me, Every time I hear another version like Conway Twitty’s version of Rainy Night in Ga. I hear him say on the recording, “Ah where are you Brook Benton”, where are ya son”,
To this day I say, “ He is at May Day”.
Thanks for listening. Listen below.
Listen to Conway call out for Brook Benton when he has a hard time reaching the low notes. It is almost at the end when he says, Ah Brooke Benton where are you? I still say, Ahh Conway, he is at May Day. No. A true entertainer, died in 1988, but he was a true star. He shined brightly in my eyes and ears and still does.
Step away Conway I could have said when he recorded this, “You are not Brook Benton.” Of course Twitty is gone as well now.