Dear Ma,

I hope you’re doing good up there in Heaven. We are doing OK down here in Dallas! Well Ma, it’s now November, and that means the cooler weather and the holidays are coming up fast. Every year it seems that right after Halloween, things tend to slow down tremendously. Less people ride when the weather gets cool and even less when it gets cold!

Then Thanksgiving gets in the way, followed by Christmas, then the New Year and then them ugly taxes! Don’t get me wrong Ma, I love Thanksgiving and Christmas … but I HATE the industry slowdown that comes with the holiday season!

So, Ma, we recently celebrated our 25th anniversary and my 65th birthday with a big blowout here at Strokers Dallas and Strokers Ice House! We brought in a national recording band called WARRANT! They are a multiple platinum band with hit songs like “CHERRY PIE” and “UNCLE TOM’S CABIN!” They put on a great show and rocked the house! We made it a three-day celebration, with a Bike Night, T-Shirt and Bikini Contests and over a dozen bands! On the outside looking in, everything seemed to be very smooth, but in reality, it almost killed me!

The party was great, and a good time was had by all the attendees, but I thought I was gonna have a heart attack before the weekend ended. So, here’s the dope Ma: The promotor that was working this event and coordinating the timing for all the different bands and scheduling some of the other festivities … well, the day before the event, the Dallas Police Department and the sheriff’s department showed up with nine cop cars and arrested this dumb pig in my front parking lot!

OK, so this is where the heartaches intensified! Turns out, the bands were all owed money, because he had only given them a deposit with the balance due before they took the stage. He also had arranged to have a huge stage brought in for the event, and they had not been paid either. Yep, same with the sound and lighting crews — all unpaid! He had also hired some models that came in from Houston to work, and they were looking for the money he owed them. He had also arranged for a press conference with some celebrities coming in, and they were due some money too. Well, the promoter, who is now in jail, had all the money to pay all these people, so now what do I do?

I’ll tell you what I did. As far as the bands, I wanted to make sure that the headliner, WARRANT, got paid, so I talked with the main sponsor, and he graciously agreed to pay them as well as a lot of the other people that were owed money. Much of the other stuff and other people the promoter had lined up to work, I sent them packing. Some of the bands that were promised more money got mad at me, but I told them to contact the jailbird promoter when/if he ever gets out of jail. I also pointed out to the people I sent packing that they had no contract or promises from me, Rick Fairless, or either one of my companies, Strokers Dallas or Strokers Ice House.

Yes, it was very tough to recover and salvage the big party, but we did it, and our customers all had a swell time! What else happened that weekend, you ask? Well, for starters, we caught a couple of swingers having “too much fun” up in my outdoor Sky Bar lounge overlooking the courtyard. When I confronted them, the lady said this wasn’t her husband — it was a member of their swingers group, and today was his birthday! They were real sorry and they are regular customers.

I thanked them for their past business and I told them that I never wanted them back here again. They reiterated that they were regulars and that if I kicked them out, then none of their group would come back. I told them that since they disrespected me, in my house, I didn’t want them back, and if their pals chose to not come back, then I was good with that too! I’m now 65 and in the fourth quarter of my life, and I don’t want to waste time with people who bring me headaches and problems to my house! 

Anyway, that’s the score here in Dallas Ma. I gotta go for now — I’m fixing to drive my 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air to Fort Worth and play a round of golf with my pal Shawn and a couple of my old high school buddies!

Love ya, Ma!
RF