Rock 'n Roll

I boarded the nickel snatcher at North Island Naval Air Station and paid the dime water taxi fare to San Diego. The original fare was a nickel, so, no matter how high the fare increased in 1951, the ferry from North Island, Coronado was called the nickel snatcher. We sat on blue benches and the boats carried about thirty sailors. It was a few blocks up Broadway to the little night club with the piano bar. The tall skinny black woman was still performing there, as she had been on my liberty the night before. She was sexy and sophisticated in my twenty one year old opinion. Not beautiful, but she was friendly and cool in a jazz sense. I loved the way she played the piano and sang the almost churchly rhythm and blues of the hip black people. She was like Nat King Cole only she never became famous.

As an Airman in the Navy during the Korean War, I earned very little money. Sometimes I went to town with less than a dollar to spend and still had a good time at the free servicemen U.S.O. dance. Now, I sat at the bar nursing a beer and tapping my heel in time with her piano rhythms. One of the lyrics she sang was, "Rock Me, Roll Me, All Night Long".

She took a break, sidled over to the bar, and asked me for a cigarette. I lit her smoke and asked, "I'm sorry to be so square, but can you tell me what it means when you sing words like rock and roll?"

She rolled her eyes in a provocative way and answered without hesitation. "It means anything you want it to, Baaaaaaaby." This was just before rock and roll was made popular by white singers. I pretended to act cool and not notice what she meant. I left the bar before she finished her next set. As I think back, I wish I had known her better, and wonder what happened to her. She was a fabulous entertainer.