FULFILLING YOUR DREAMS, PART ONE

We all have dreams, and if we are lucky enough, some of those dreams come true. Many of us wish for different things, a new car, a home of our own, and that most elusive of all dreams, true love. My editor, poor disillusioned man that he is, has a dream that I will at sometime in the future, get this column into him each week on time.... keep dreaming Pat.



Have you ever noticed that planning for and working on dreams makes them ever so much nicer when they come to reality? I have been fortunate enough to have several of my wishes or dreams fulfilled and I would like to share some of them with you now.



SATCH



When I was a youngster ( lo all those many years ago ) I thought that Louis Armstrong was the greatest horn player there was. I also played trumpet, and with all the brash enthusiasm of youth, dreamed of one day playing on stage with Satch.

My sister, Sylvia was living in San Francisco and I had the chance one summer, when I was about 14, to go visit her. Her boyfriend at the time was an inspector on the San Francisco Police Department and he was the one responsible for making a young boy's dream come true.

Louis was in town and was appearing at a club owned by another jazz great Kid Ory. One unforgettable night, Lor, my sister's boyfriend, arrived at her apartment at 2:00 a. m., woke me up, and told me to get dressed and to get my horn. He drove me over to Kid Ory's On The Levy, and with a quick flash of his badge we were inside. I still had no idea of what he had set up, but I was thrilled beyond words to be able to listen to and watch my idol in the relaxed setting of after hours.

Louis and the band played several songs and then came the biggest surprise of my young life. In his gravely voice he said " Folks there is a young man here tonight who I understands blows a mean horn, Steve, grab your horn and come on down here. How do you react to a dream come true? I sat speechless at first, wishing that he meant me, and being envious at whoever Steve was that he should be so lucky. Then Lor handed me my horn and gave me a shove towards the stage. Somehow I managed to get up on the stage and Satch said something to me. I wish I could tell you what he said but I was in a daze. Then he started playing and nothing else mattered. We played three songs together, the saints go marching in, birth of the blues, and do you know what it means to miss New Orleans.

I then walked back ( or should I say floated back ) to my table where I sat and listened to the world's greatest horn player until the sun came up and we all went home.