Slammer Tom Story
-by Terry
SchwartzwalderNow we had a Roadside Band fan....who was named "slammer" Tom.
I once knew his last name, but I can't remember it anymore.
Tom was a nice guy and liked the band quite a bit.
I heard a rumor once, that he was from Texas and had a quite extensive cattle ranch down there.
Whether that's true or not...I don't know.
Anyway, Tom would come into town on occasion and hunt us down.
He was called "slammer" because that was the drink that he drank exclusively
while partying at the bar and when he was in the crowd,
you knew that it was going to become a wild night.
He would go around and buy rounds of slammers for different tables of patrons.
Also once or twice a night while we were playing,
we would have to stop and pause.
"It's slammer time" he would cry out,
and that meant that he was buying a round
of slammers for everyone in the bar at once....including the band!!
So we would play until everyone had been served their drinks
and you couldn't drink them until Tom said.
Then, we would stop and Duane or Mike would announce over the microphone...
"everybody ready? One...two..three.." and bam!!...
everybody would slam their slammers on a hard surface
at the same time and guzzle them down while they were still fizzing up.
Now these weren't "Alabama slammers"
(that were made with Grenadine, I think).
Those were for the women to drink if they wanted.
No respectable guy would ever drink an Alabama slammer
and if you were a male, Tom wouldn't let you.
No, you drank a "slammer"....which was a shot of Yukon Jack whiskey
and soda water served in a sturdy bar tumbler for slamming.
You just plop a napkin over the top of the glass.....get a good grip....
and bam!...and then drink while fizzing.
I always thought that it tasted like oranges.
When we had these "pauses" for "full bar slammers",
Tom wanted us to play a particular song that he really liked
performed by David Allen Coe called,
"You Never Even Called Me by My Name."
I think that we usually played the song AFTER
we had done the slammers...but I'm not sure.
It may have been just before. Anyway, after a few months...
we thought that it would be fun to have TOM
come up on stage and sing it himself!!
So with a lot of coaxing, we finally talked him into it...
and he had such a blast we never had to ask him again.
He would automatically come up on the stage to do the song.
His singing was....well a little off...but it was fun!!
Here is a "very rare" photo of "slammer" Tom singing
his favorite song on stage with us at Whitehouse Inn.
- L to R- Kathy Nativo, Tom, and Mike (Rich) Gingrich.
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