Gordon Lightfoot and The Dive Bar

The mermaid at The Dive Bar

The guy I felt sorry for last night was the poor valet dude at Ella Dining Room and Bar who, unknown to Myrl and me, had been waiting for an hour and a half for us to hightail our tipsy selves back to get our car. It was a miscommunication thing. I knew that we could leave the car with the valet at Ella while we scurried over to the Gordon Lightfoot concert at The Crest Theatre, because people do it all the time. Valet dude even asked us when the show ended, but we didn’t necessarily ask him when the restaurant closes.

We didn’t know we had a curfew. I’m telling you so if you go downtown Sacramento to dine at Ella and leave your car with the valet while you scamper off to some show at The Crest or some other mischief, that you make it a point to find out when you need to be back. Of course, Myrl and I, we could have walked back to my house, because the time distance on foot between my home in Land Park and the Crest Theatre is about 45 minutes. But somebody from Rocklin would probably have to hail a cab, and good luck with that in downtown Sacramento.

Myrl Jeffcoat and Elizabeth Weintraub at Macy’s

I decided yesterday not to take any appointments with my real estate clients for the rest of the afternoon because my friend, Myrl Jeffcoat, had agreed to a Chanel makeup session with me at Macy’s, dinner at Ella and then off to see Gordon Lightfoot. Myrl also sells real estate in Sacramento but that’s not what we talk about when we get together. An agent in my Lyon office talked us into the Chanel event, because I don’t care how old a woman gets, if she had fun with makeup as a teenager, it doesn’t really go out of style just because you’re an old goat. And I suppose that’s what keeps Chanel in business.

Myrl Jeffcoat at Ella Dining Room

After we finished our makeup, isn’t Myrl beautiful? we were immediately famished. Two Drunken Arnold Palmers we ordered at Ella, not really certain what was in the cocktail, but it was refreshing, and gingery. Yum. We don’t even play golf. Started off with a plate of succulent sea scallops, which melted in our mouths. Myrl chose the artichoke soup with bacon cream. How can you go wrong with bacon cream? You can’t. We finished with chilled lobster and dashed off to the show.

Gordon Lightfoot is older than dirt but he obviously enjoys putting on a show, and we felt honored to have snagged seats in the front. Nobody’s vocal chords seem to survive the aging process, so people who expected Gordon Lightfoot to sound like his old records might have been disappointed, but I was happy just to see him vertical. Not that I’ve ever seen him horizontal, mind you.

Gordon Lightfoot at The Crest Theatre

During the show, we chatted with guys in our row. When I asked Myrl if she had ever gone to a high school reunion, one of the guys perked up and said, “Yeah, but when I went to my 40th, there was nothing but old people there.” He stole my line. I had a strong urge to say, “You know, buddy, you’re no spring chicken yourself,” but I kept my lips zipped only because he couldn’t hear me. Then, later, while we were walking across the train tracks to the The Dive Bar, we realized those guys zipped backstage the minute the show was over. We could have been partying with the band, but no, we missed that opportunity! Darn, darn, darn.

Although, it’s hard to picture Gordon Lightfoot partying away, but if he did have an after-show get-together with all of his bandmates and buddies, well, we blew our big chance. What the hey. I am past 60, and Myrl is a grandmother, 9 years older than me. We giggled on over to The Dive Bar for a gin and tonic and to shoot photos of the mermaid. If you haven’t been to The Dive Bar, you’ve really got to go downtown Sacramento if for nothing else but to see the mermaid. The end of this story is we didn’t get arrested, we got our car back, and we made it home safely. The 3 ingredients for a great evening in downtown Sacramento!