Around 1997 or so we did a show at One Block East in Greenville with Sunny Ridell. One Block was a great club, good room, great crowds, and super management by David Weiss. David was one of my favorite guys to deal with-always straight up about everything. Yes meant yes, no meant no, maybe meant "I'll try to make it happen."
After the show, Sunny Ridell, his wife Trish, Lil' Bill Wallace (the man who supposedly taught BB King to play guitar) and two women ( I never did figure out their connection to Bill. Probably not my business.) went for a late breakfast with then business partner Ed Stuart and me after the show. The Midway Truck Stop between Greenville and Leland was the only place we found open. Our group was seated. We placed our drink orders, and waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Sunny was the first to say anything. "The other folks are getting served and we aren't. I wonder did our order get lost?"
Ed wanted to get up and make a scene. Sunny and I talked him into letting me go ask about our order. I'm supposedly the calmer and more diplomatic of the two of us.
I went to the register, and didn't ask about our order. Instead, I walked back to the table and sat down.
"We've got a problem."
"What did they say?" Ed.
I told him they didn't say anything because I didn't open my mouth. I watched a Greenville city cop cuff and arrest a black man for walking out on an order he hadn't received after more than an hour wait. The man was quiet and polite up until the cuffs clicked shut, then he got only a little louder.
I decided it was a better idea to sit down and make a plan, especially since we were the only mixed race table in the restaurant. Check that. Our party had the only black people in the building.
Sunny asked "What have we gotten ourselves into and how are we going to get of it?"
Before we could make a plan, a Washington County Deputy pulled up a chair and sat next to me.
He said "I know Bill, but who are the rest of you people?"
I introduced Sunny and Trish, and explained that Ed and I were partners as Sunny's manager and agent. He nodded, and said he recognized Sunny from the Delta-Democrat Times photo that ran that day.
I told him that was a good article, and that we were waiting for our order.
He didn't respond, other than to ask "So you folks work together?"
I said yes, but got the impression things weren't going well.
I mentioned that I had lived in Greenville in the early 80s, and wondered if he knew any of the people I knew back then. I thought for just a second, and mentioned the first deputy sheriff whose name I remembered, "What's Victor Smith up to these days?"
"How do you know Victor Smith?" Stone face. The room temperature dropped ten degrees. I figured if I was in this deep, I might as well keep going.
I told him that I had worked at the hospital with Victor's daughter Beth, and that I knew Victor from when he would come to the ER on some sort of business or other.
"Did you know he's the County Sheriff now?"
"No, I did not. Good for him." (His BOSS? Hallelujah!)
He said "Let me go ask about your orders" as he pushed his chair back from the table.
Ten minutes later we were inundated with plates of hot, fresh food, fresh coffee, orange juice, and all the things we had ordered, all cooked to perfection. Our deputy friend sat with us until we were done and walked us out to our cars.
About a year ago I had business in Greenville. I drove across 82 from Leland to Greenville. The Midway is gone. Hopefully, the Midway attitudes are as well.
About Bill Wallace: Lil’ Bill Wallace was a Delta guitar player and blues man. He was rumored to be the man who taught BB King how to play guitar.
I had heard this story, and asked a couple of musicologists about it. Both pooh-poohed the story, although neither had ever asked Bill or BB whether it was true. Bill and BB were about the same age, lived in the same area as young men, and played similar enough styles that I thought it was at least possible.
I never got to check with BB, but the night we went to the Midway I did get the chance to ask Bill.
I asked Bill straight up. "I've heard that you're the man who taught BB King how to play guitar. Did you?"
Bill paused, then replied that he and BB had both played on the street corners in Indianola as teenagers. Bill would play guitar and sing blues and popular radio tunes. BB would sing gospel songs but with no accompaniment. One day BB asked Bill why Bill made so much more in tips than BB did.
"I said, "Riley, these church people come by you and say 'Isn't he a fine boy, singing them old church songs?' and drop a nickel or a couple of pennies in your hat if they do that much. Most of the time they just say "bless you" and keep walking. Then another fella comes by me, walking with his girl, and says 'listen to that boy playin' the blues! That's what I'm talkin' about!'
"And that second fella wants to impress his girl, and maybe he's already had a little something to drink, so he drops a quarter or fifty cents in my hat.
And Riley, he didn't go by BB in those days because it was before he went to Memphis, asked me about my guitar, so I showed him a couple of things, chords and such, a couple of songs, and got him started but I can't say I taught him how to play."
That story, and the final bit of denial, rang true to me then and still does today.
