The Starlite Lounge

 

I think that a Honky Tonk in Odessa probably allowed me to dump enough work stress to survive my work time there even though I still got an ulcer and almost had a nervous breakdown. The story follows.

 

 

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The Starlite Lounge

 

There was a Starlite Lounge in Odessa, Texas, that was one of the largest Honky Tonks that we ever went to. Odessa was right in the the middle of oil country, so there was a lot of roughnecks, well work over crews, and construction workers that came in there to let their hair down so the place was close to being full every Friday and Saturday nights.

 

 

Dancing under the stars at the Starlite Lounge. It’s early in the night, but things will be hopping soon.

 

 

The most stressful period of my work career was the year we spent in Odessa, so when Friday night came along, we got a baby sitter and let our cowboys out and headed for the Starlite Lounge. The hardwood dance floor in this place was the biggest I have ever seen so when we started our counter clockwise circle around the dance floor, it took a long time to get back where we started. John Anderson had just released the album that had the songs “Swingin'”, “Wild And Blue”, and “Honky Tonk Saturday Night” on it. They played these songs a couple of times each during the evening and we loved to dance to all of them, so we did our special dances every time they played. After the first hour in the club, we were just good old cowboys like everyone else in there letting our hair down. They usually had a DJ playing that good old loud Honky Tonk music. I was a smoker then, so I felt right at home in the smoke that was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I have often wondered how Pam survived the smoke, but she loved our nights out. I left a lot of stress there in that place as I was loaded up with it when I came in. This place may be what allowed me to survive my time in Odessa.

 

Every time John Anderson would sing “Just A Swingin'”, we would cut loose with a rapid swing as we traveled around the huge dance floor losing ourselves in the dance.

 

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Over in Midland, Texas, about 10 miles from our house there was a second Starlite Lounge which was almost identical to the one in Odessa. We tried the one in Midland a couple of times, but we found that the crowd was more of a blue collar bunch there. The drinks were a little higher and they always had a live band. We found that we liked the honky tonk in Odessa better out there hanging with the good old boys because they always had more fun. We never saw a fight in either place all the times we went out.

 

 

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Thanks for reading The Starlite Lounge.
Bill