CAC Benevolent Fund

Saturday Night Slam

Alicia's House 2004

The morning of this great day started as usual at 5 a.m. A brisk walk, a short nutritious breakfast, and then off to my daily chores. At roughly 3 p.m., I arrived back at my home to ready myself for a great weekend with past, present and future friends.

At 4 p.m., Dave (Drason) Burzynski and I left my home and started west towards Chicago on the Ohio Turnpike. We spoke of many memories in wrestling and other subjects. It had been since the Cauliflower Alley Club meeting since we had a chance to chat.

In no time at all, we were at the Indiana Turnpike and another 150-mile section in the trip. The miles seemed to just float on by as we continued to talk about the many friends that we encountered over the years. Dave spoke of the many trips that he has taken to different parts of the world. Dave is a Winecologist as well as an engineer for a major corporation in the Detroit area.

As I looked up at the road signs, I nearly missed our turnoff at I-65 to go to US 30 crossing south Chicago. I find that this is a lot easier than trying to cope with the conglomeration of four roads coming together and trying to put all that traffic on one three lane highway. There is also a high degree of construction on the skyway, and that just adds to the confusion during any kind of rush hour.

After turning on the Sauk Trail, we headed west again to I-57 south and Peotone, some 35 miles south of Chicago. At first, I had thought that we missed our turnoff, as we were in a residential area. But, stopping at a business, we found out that we were only four miles from our target.

Arriving in Peotone, we headed to one of my favorite stops, Die Peotone Bierstube, on Highway 50, run by Karl Ditschler. As we parked Dave's Lincoln Continental across the street in a special reserved section for personal guests of Karl, I heard the wonderful sounds of the Bavarian one-man band performing in a new outdoors arena.

We were met at the gate by Mr. Karate and let into the VIP section, where we began to make friendships renew again. I was met by Chief Paul Farber, Buddy Roberts (of Freebirds fame), and Scott Schwartz, who was in Oceans 11 and many other movies. I glanced across the table, and there was Kevin Hughes, who wrestled in the Northeast as "The Butcher"; how great it was to see him again. It was then that my attention was captured by the huge hands of a man that would terrify anybody anywhere. As I stated before, this guy would scare the devil into going to church … Ox Baker.

He had grabbed my hand and pulled me into that huge grizzled body of his and began to bear hug me for all that he could. He spoke of our friendship during the many years we have known each other. He also said that his wife, Peggy Ann, sent her love to me.

After finally getting set down, the band began to play some of my favorites in old style German music. They introduced everyone at the VIP table one by one and told the audience why we were in town and asked all to come out the following day and support Alicia's House and the wonderful work it does for the communities surrounding Peotone.

The lead singer called Ox to the stage area, as he knew that he was fluent in a lot of languages and began to sing duets with Ox, much to the delight of the wonderful audience. The rendition of "Pennsylvania Polka" that Ox did was a keeper, as he had the people eating out of his hand, so to speak. As the set ended, the announcer said, "Und a huge Danken to Mr. Ox Barker" ... Ox just turned and looked at the guy, and the poor guy seemed to want to crawl away from the stage. Ox has that effect on people.

Our meals arrived, and we all dug in to feast on the many varieties of things on the menu. I had the half slab of ribs done with a secret sauce known only to Karl Ditschler. Even his pet dog Fritz doesn't know.

Dave had Schnitzel, and Scott dined on a huge serving of pork with all the toppings. Ox had the biggest steak in the place and was still hungry, so he topped off the night with a heaping mound of a half-gallon of ice cream topped with authentic German chocolate. Kevin had the crab and seafood platter, and Buddy Roberts dined on a steak with all the trimmings.

As we continued to enjoy the night and the music, we were suddenly caught in a huge downpour that completely drenched everybody and everything that wasn't under umbrellas. After everything subsided, we went our separate ways to the hotel suites reserved nearby. As I looked at my watch, it was almost midnight EST, and I had been up for 19 hours straight and traveled nearly 300 miles that day.

The pillow never felt so good to me … more to come in this great story.

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers
2004 CAC Honoree