The power of positivity: I got off the plane in Houston and I had clouds over my head. I was really out of sorts after my earlier experience with a mean lady on Southwest Airlines who wouldn’t let me board with my guitar and a carry-on. I was just in a bad mood.
Suddenly this older lady—I’m convinced she was sent by an angel—came up and asked me what kind of guitar I had in my gig bag. I told her, then she told me all the different modern and vintage electric basses she owned. I said, “You must be a professional musician.” She said that she was for many decades.
Her name was Edna, and she was a sweetheart. She played in female soul bands in Omaha, Nebraska, back in the day, and it sounded like she had a million gigs under her belt.
Then she dropped a bomb that she used to play with Omaha’s Preston Love, a sax-playing bandleader who recorded with Johnny Otis, Count Basie, and tons more. I was blown away.
She was just so sweet and nice and fun to talk to, I immediately felt all the stress and bad feelings leaving my body, and all my muscles relaxed.
She asked me, “Where did you get this nice leather gig bag?” I told her, a little sheepishly, that I had found it at a garage sale for five dollars. She said, “Well, that’s where you find the good stuff, isn’t it?”
Thank God for Edna. What a wonderful person. She got my mind back in the right place today, and I am very grateful for her. Thanks, Edna!
