Back In The Day...late 70's Father moment

Back in the late 70's, Dad had the key to the city of Houston, Texas. Just like it seems as if musically today, everything is about Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, and Mike Jones..who? In the late 70's things were jumpin on Alameda Blvd. and other parts of town where you'd find a Budget Soul Records run by my father. He had colorful characters all around him, namely the fellas that ran the streets along with him; Big George(semi-bodyguard, looked like Issac Hayes), Steve(cool white guy with a beautiful black wife), George Frazier(KYOK air personality), Gil Bultron(exciteable record salesman behind the counter), a few other co-horts and sprinkles of afro wearing sistahs all around. It was a far cry from my father's country boy upbringing in a small east Texas town where he had no indoor plumbing and no streetlights.

Dad lived it up bigtime during this brief era. He drove a new corvette every year and eventually found that he garnered more attention while driving a souped up Cadillac Seville, two-toned with chrome wire wheels... He was all that.. The shiz-nit, promoting concerts with his cohorts under the moniker of Family Productions.. Such acts as Rufus & Chaka Khan, Al Green, The Brother's Johnson, Earth Wind & Fire, War, and every year the spectacle that was Parliament-Funkadelic. That was life at its fastest and most exciting for dad. He was even given the key to the city by the mayor, covered by local television. He was celebrated as a black businessman generating a great deal of success via his chain of records stores; Budget Soul. Those were the days for him and then like some good things, change moves the playing field in a whole new direction... Those small record stores where you could go into and get personal attention. Have a brotha place the needle on the record for you and have you listen to the first five seconds of the song only to realize you gotta have it! Those days had to give way to the huge record stores which sold more than just records. At the time in Houston, the store that came in and changed things was called Cactus Records. They sold everything... Those neighborhood stores with the personal attention, the culture, the fun, the conversation and good times like Budget Soul, couldn't compete. Dad found a new niche building homes and making furniture but gone were the days of fast times, hot music, nice cars, women and running the city.. The key became but a memory but its those memories that last longer than anything that might interrupt an era... Dad had fun...