Compiled by Forrest Preece
I know it’s a month past Valentine’s Day, but I couldn’t help submitting this terrific story that Sarah Bird wrote about how she met her husband.
--Forrest Preece
How Sarah Bird Met Her Wild and Crazy Guy
By Sarah Bird
So many dominoes had to fall in order for me to meet George Jones. Not the No Show C & W singer, but George Jones, the love of my life.
First of all, the air conditioning in my apartment had to go out on a blistering hot August evening in 1978. When the lacquer on the furniture started bubbling, my roommate, Cathy Staph, and I considered the unthinkable: Aqua Fest. Only the hellish heat could have driven us to attend the giant drunk held annually on the banks of the Colorado River until 1998.
It was Czech night, an oompah band was playing, and the one-dollar Lone Stars were flowing. But the unbilled attraction getting the most attention was two fellows dressed like the Wild and Crazy Guys of SNL fame. That would be the aforementioned George Jones and his roommate, Stu Farqu. (To which I always responded, “And the horse you rode in on.”)
The dominoes had started falling for this pair of roommates when Stu lamented that they were not meeting any girls. To which, the ever-astute George Jones pointed out that they’d probably have much better luck in that department if they left their apartment.
Stu, who was getting a PhD in chemical engineering, possessed plaid bell-bottoms, slinky disco shirts, platform shoes, and floppy newsboy caps. George put Czech Night together with Stu’s wardrobe, and the Wild and Crazy Guys Austin Edition was born.
They trucked on down—a man can only truck while wearing platform shoes—to Aqua Fest. There, on the most extroverted night of George Jones’ life, they proceeded to loudly declare that they were wild and kuh-ray-zee guys! Mandatory comments about big American . . . and their own prowess followed.
They were such a hit that not only did they soon have a crowd following them around, but John Bernadoni, executive director of the Paramount at that time, asked if they would appear onstage.
I took one look at George gobbling up all the attention and being a sexist pig and thought, “Wow, this is exactly the kind of raging egomaniacal, cheating dog who could thoroughly ruin a girl’s life. Exactly my type.”
