Cab Tales...One More Thought

Aside from the occasional crisis, many fun times were had as well. Most of the great night spots that were around back then are gone now. Sherman's, The Cotton Club, scrubby old Betas, and of course, Chelsea's.

Chelsea's was a bar that booked Blues Bands. Good ones. It also had a well developed drug culture. This wasn't necessarily management's fault, it just king of followed the musical scene.

One night there was a band playing there that went on break. When they lit up in the parking lot, Coeur d'Alene's finest descended upon them. It turns out the smoke was under Idaho statutes, a controlled substance, of which it was unlawful to possess or use. Marijuana. Pot. Acapulco Gold. Stinky Weed.

When the break didn't end, some curious wandered out and discovered the problem. Not accepting defeat, and with the knowledge that the bar was full of underemployed musicians, volunteers jumped on the stage, and finished out the evening.

I visited Coeur d'Alene recently. Well, actually, I was a refugee from the power outage caused by the big wind storm that moved through a while back. I hadn't spent any time in the City much since I moved to Bayview lo these twelve years ago. The only watering hole that was familiar was the Iron Horse.

Downtown Coeur d'Alene had morphed into Yuppie Heaven, with wine and coffee bars lining the streets. I thought it was a flashback to the early Sixties in Malibu. I felt like a foreigner. I fled back to Bayview...My comfort zone...