Afterword One

Original Acknowledgements from 2008 Edition

Over the course of the three years writing this tale, I’ve acquired a great number of people to thank. However, due to three PC crashes and an aging mind, I’ve forgotten quite a few of them. So if I missed you, you have my eternal thanks and the right to yell at me via e-mail.

Here are the ones I did remember: Andrea Howe, Blue Falcon Editing; The Colorado Blues Society; The Denver Public Library; The Colorado History Museum; The Green Mill, Chicago; The Kingston Mines, Chicago; The Chicago History Museum; The Chicago Public Library; David Smith, Arizona Snowbowl; Max Décharné, author of Straight from the Fridge, Dad; David Grazian, author of Blue Chicago; Barbara F. Varon, author of “The Japanese Americans: Comparative Occupational Status, 1960 and 1950”; National Fire Protection Association; The Tattoo Archive; the Sidney Bechet Society; The People and the Town of Grand Lake, Colorado (my favorite place to write!); Stella’s Coffeehouse, Denver; And … the hard-working men and women who sing the blues!

Special thanks go to: God for blessing me with my imagination and skill and for putting the right people in my life at the right time to get me here; Dylan Boop for putting up with Dad’s butt in front of the computer all the time; Peggy Boop for financing the research trip to Chicago and so much more; The BTC Writer’s Group for suffering through this when it was just a concept; Megan Kopetzky for being my first reader; Sarah A. Hoyt for identifying my greatest writing weaknesses; and finally … David Rozansky of Flying Pen Press for pestering me to finish this damn thing. Glad you felt it was worth the wait!