The Shilo was a honky-tonk. Like a dozen other in Kennett at the time. But when Don Akers brought his band back to Kennett and became the “house band,” The Shilo was something more. It was Hot & Nasty and The Disco King. It was Foosball. And when Don and Suzy and the band took the stage… it just rocked.

I’m not sure when Don Akers brought Suzy and his band back to Kennett, or how we first heard they were in town. I will confess to being something of a groupie where this band was concerned. Maybe they were as good as we thought they were, maybe you just had to be there to see Don leap from tiny table to table, his Fender guitar cord trailing behind him. The Shilo quickly became a regular part of our Friday and Saturday evenings. We congregate in Peck’s TV room around seven and then drift out to the Shilo around eight.

If the band hadn’t taken the stage, we’d loosen up with a few games of Foosball. Foosball was more than just another table game for a few of us. At least it seems that way looking back. I remember partnering with John against RP and… Mullin? Doesn’t matter. These contests had an almost transcendent affect on RP and me. All of our aggression and adrenaline compressed into a few square feet. In the heat of these games I was totally focused on the table, my reflexes hyped up and my vision blacked out around the edges. And RP was way beyond that. The table must have weighed 500 pounds but he’d lift his side completely off the ground, like some frantic father hoisting a car from his injured child. RP once cut his hand in mid-game but never noticed the blood or the pain until the point was over.

An evening at the Shilo listening to Don and Suzy was such a physical experience, there’s no way I can share it with you if you weren’t there. Dark, smoky, loud, crowded. You came out stinking of cigarette smoke and soaked with perspiration. Your voice was gone for days because screaming was the only way to talk to the person sitting next to you.