CHAPTER TWENTY-ONEButch and Jesse’s gigs at Mother’s on Friday and Saturday nights were always well attended. Media reporters, Larry Borne’s theater people, Jayne Milson’s restaurant workers, Charles Allen’s dancers, and the creative crowd from 1114 and the West Central neighborhood showed up regularly.
People didn’t come just to hear the music. They crowded in to be part of the action. It was a swinging singles scene with no cover charge and pitchers of beer for three dollars. The parking lot out back made a great hangout for smoking pot. The owner encouraged it and hired Fort Wayne Police Officer Donald Jackson to provide outdoor security. Officer Jackson not only looked the other way; he was known to partake in the smoke and flirt with the women.
By September of 1974, the flamboyantly
