The Adventures of Bobby Mackey

Haunted country club?  Yes please.  Line dancing?  Why not.  Bull riding?  But of course.  I wanted the full fledged Bobby Mackey’s experience.  In what turned out to be one of the most hysterical Friday nights I’ve ever experienced, I ventured down to boofoo Kentucky with my roommates Adam and Brian, and my two buddies Steve and Michael.

It is ill advised when traveling to Bobby Mackey’s.  Its reputation as the most haunted nightclub in the U.S. proceeds itself.  Urban legend portrays an alleged gateway to hell, in which with satanic worshipers cursed the location claiming to haunt all predecessors.  Upon entering, a sign exhorts “WARNING TO OUR PATRONS: This establishment is proported to be haunted.  Management is not responsible and cannot be held liable for any actions of any ghosts/spirits on this premises.”  You would have never guessed it; not at Bobby Mackeys.

Cow hide tapestry veiled the walls.  Cancer stick smoke pungently stung the nostrils.  Feet tappin, knee-a-slappin music drowned out the colloquial conversations. In what was the watering hole for many country regulars, I was clearly out of my element.

Centered in the middle of the room, Bobby Mackey and his band jammed out on stage with a huge flag inflamed in the background.  Emblazoned in crimson and gold was “Bobby Mackey” sketched in fine white trimming.  This is procedural practice for Bobby Mackey.  The man has been doing this for over 30 years now.  He is a legend amongst the country folk.

The music would only cut for the DJ to spin your cliché line dance songs.  I’ve never seen a group of people who appreciate “Cotton Eyed Joe” more than the folk down at Bobby Mackey’s.  Line dancing is simply a mathematical model in which half steps, steps, twists and turns follow a specific repetitive pattern; or so I thought.  It became quite prevalent who were the accomplished regulars and who were the city slickers.  I simply could not hang.

This post doesn’t do justice to the aesthetics and composition of the bar.  The culture is something that cannot be written, but rather can only be experienced empirically.  In what will always be remembered as a random/hilarious night, the Adventures of Bobby Mackey’s will go down in infamy.

 

 

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