DEPUTY PLAYS ACCORDION                                   

The Deputy Sheriff was a pretty good accordion player. He would keep time with his foot.  Now here’s the thing, most people tap their foot.  He would start like that but after awhile he would lift the whole foot and his socks were real loose so his foot would be going up but his socks would be going down. And his foot would go down and his sock would go up. 

He’d also take bites into the air. If he pushed the wrong button, no, it was supposed to be this one, he would bite the air in the direction of the button.  And then his breath, he would hold his breath with the bellows.  You have to push and pull the accordion.  He would be pulling, pulling and he’d be running out of breath.  Then he would try to catch his breath.  We told him “You don’t have to hold your breath the accordion has its own breathing.”  No, but somehow it goes with it.  But he was running out of breath this way.  And the foot is going the whole time with the sock going up and down.  I don’t know if he realized that he was doing all of that. 

He knew how to play the diatonic accordion pretty well.  He’d move his head in the direction of the notes and if he missed a note, he’d take a bite out of the air.   When he would sit down, he would pull his pants leg way up almost to the middle of the leg by his knee.  He always wore those loose pants, not jeans.  He would pull the pant leg up to give him room to move the leg. But then he had socks that were mid calf but they were loose.  And Ben’s brother would look at me, see, we’re going to get a show now. 

“Do you have any new polkas that you’ve learned?”  “Yeah, I got this one.”  Everyone else would just tap their heels.  Then after awhile his whole foot would be going up about six inches.  The whole foot would be going. And the socks would be moving up and down, like a piston action.  Then he’d be panting for air because he held his breath.  He put a lot into playing the accordion.

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