As you will learn in my book, Rain Dodging, when I was younger I had a closet fantasy of being a cocktail waitress. As a young teacher, I fantasized about a job that you didn’t take home. I got my chance at non-other than L.A.’s “World-Famous Palomino Club.”
Significantly, I am writing this on Sunday. Sundays at the “The Pal” were poignantly depressing. Entering from the heady perfume of California sun-kissed air into the flat fragrance of ‘l’eau de stale beer & cigarettes was a ruthless assault on the senses. As most families gathered for Sunday dinners across the San Fernando Valley, a few lonely-hearted, and down-and-outs sat alone at the Pal, scattered throughout the large room, heads down, guzzling hangover beers, listening to country music piped in through tinny speakers.
No tips today.
However, nights were another story!
Excerpt from my book Rain Dodging:
Entering the legendary Palomino Club on the northern fringe of North Hollywood was like stumbling onto a B-grade spaghetti western set. Walking past ‘Tiny,’ the 300 lb. Dan Blocker doppelganger, into the dark, musty club was time‑traveling back to an era when men were men and women were unimportant. It seemed that long since the floors had been swept. Dusty black-framed 8 x 10’s of every country‑western star imaginable crowded worn wood‑paneled walls. Most bore faded autographs to Tommy Thomas, the club’s maniacal owner. Above a long banquette of red Naugahyde booths, black lit hand-painted Day-Glo posters advertised coming attractions: Dwight Yoakam, Jerry Lee Lewis, Asleep at the Wheel, John Anderson. There were so many leftover staples from removed posters in the wall, it was a gamble to sit back. Linda Ronstadt performed at The Pal on amateur nights when she was still a hippy with hairy armpits. It was the perfect hole in the wall for a rowdy evening of great music. But it was the kind of place where you peed before you went and prayed you didn’t have to again until you got home.
The scent? ‘Expectation!’
Interested in a feel for the good old days at the Pal? View: Behind the Music: The Palomino Club, 1949-95. on YouTube.
