Going to "Town" with Bill and the decison

 On Tuesday July 27th Bill came by the bus and wanted to know if I wanted to ride into town. I said sure. . I 65 was open up to the present day location of Briley Parkway but Bill preferred to take the “old road” to town, it brought us out on the James Robertson Parkway and across the bridge into downtown Nashville. He was driving the old blue station wagon and as we started up the hill just past where we parked the bus and (I did some searching and it was at about 5000 US Highway 41 by a recent google search) Bill said that where I used to live, in that house. It was a house that was covered with stone and on up the hill a short distance was a small trailer park. He said that’s where Lester and Earl lived when they first moved to town. As we rode along I had been thinking a lot. I said “Chief you know I’ve been thinking about laying out of school for a year and playing music”. He didn’t say anything for a time and after what seemed an eternity which probably was only 2 or 3 minutes he said “you know I don’t that’s a good idea”. I asked “What” he continued “if I hadn’t done pretty good in music the only thing I could have ever done was farmed. Now your folks think a lot of you and really want you to finish school”. Again it got very quiet, as I began some serious thinking. Bill then continued “Now you go back and finish school and if you ever want a job and I have an opening, the job is yours.” It wasn't mentioned again that summer.

We went on into Nashville and he parked behind the Opry off Fourth Avenue and walked down by GTR and toward Broadway. I stopped at GTR and Bill said to meet him at about 2:00 at Linebaugh’s. I went in and John Hartford and Roy Acuff were both fiddling in the back. I admired a Florentine and All American banjo resonator in the show case and looked at a large bag of amber buttons for banjo tuners that George had purchased somewhere. He was good in those days of coming up with various parts from companies that had gone out of business years before. I spoke to Randy Wood who I had met a short time before but had known of through his association with Rual Yarbough before he came to work with George and Tut. Randy invited me into the back, the place was small and I tried to find a spot out of the way and just became the proverbial fly on the wall. It seemed like only a short time I looked at my watch and it was about time to meet Bill at Linebaugh’s Restaurant. So I tried to leave as uneventful as I entered. I went on down to Linebaugh’s and in a few minutes Bill entered. Being the early part of the week and after the regular lunch crowd had left, the restaurant was almost empty. Bill came in and immediately went over to the juke box to see what was on it. I don’t ever remember him playing anything but where ever we stopped that had a juke box he would go over and see what was on it. I never asked, but I always kind of figured he looked to see if any of his music was on it, In Linebaughs there was always some of Bill's single's on it. I remember Charlie Pride’s “Kiss An Angel Good Morning” was playing and he commented that it was a good number for Charlie. While we were eating George Linebaugh came out and Bill ask him to sit down with us. He said he couldn’t as he had a lot to do in the back. They talked a few minutes and when he left Bill said that Linebaugh had come to Nashville about the same time that he had and was a “Good Hardworking Honest Man”.