By Andy Furman
NKyTribune staff writer
Rebounding.
Of course, you’ve heard the term if you’re a basketball devotee. If you need a refresher, well, rebounding most commonly means bouncing back after hitting a hard surface, recovering from a loss or setback, or performing jumping exercises on a mini trampoline.
It also describes catching a missed basketball shot – or get this – dating someone quickly after a breakup.
Gary Jeff Walker – yes, the 700-WLW radio host – has his own thoughts on rebounding. And, he says he has experienced it first-hand.
“When something fell apart in my life,” he told the Northern Kentucky Tribune, while bartending at The Sit N’ Bull Cafe in Southgate, “I found a way to survive.
“I’m like a cockroach after nuclear war.”
For 16 years, he worked the bar at Huddle’s Café in Newport – and last month the joint closed. In 2009, he says, he lost his full-time radio gig on The Fox – WOFX-FM (92.5).
“I had to find a way to earn a living,” he said. “I found bartending.”
How?
“Well, I was a customer at Huddle’s Café (628 Monmouth Street),” he remembers, “and they offered me a part-time job.”
In fact, he says bartending is like radio work – Walker has been hosting the Saturday Morning Edition on 700-WLW Radio (5:30-9 a.m.) – next February will mark his 30-year anniversary.
“They’re both a performance,” he says, while pouring a beer for an early-afternoon customer. “The difference – you can see the audience while you perform as a bartender.”
Walker says he enjoys seeing people – all shapes, sizes, ages, and kinds. “Bartending truly is a great social experiment learning about people.”
He says, over time, one can develop a sense of being able to “read” people. “Through their body language,” he said. “You can actually learn how to serve them.”
He remembers Melvin Marshall – a customer at Huddle’s.
“Melvin got a job in Chicago,” Walker said. “We exchanged phone numbers before he left, and he told me I was the only guy who called to check on him after he moved.”
And guess what – Marshall recently returned to Northern Kentucky.
“He became a regular patron again and said Gary Jeff was always a friend – he called and checked on me when I wasn’t even around.”
Walker tends bar during the day when the clientele is usually older.
“Many of our regulars have passed,” he said. “And believe me, it’s like losing a family member.”
The passing – that caused a remarkably interesting recent dream for Gary Jeff Walker.
“I was behind the bar in this dream,” he says, eyes closed, “and one-by-one a customer that I know, that has passed – entered the bar.
“Wow. I woke up in a sweat. I’m not alive either.”
One of those clients – Jim Shank – drives from Hamilton, Ohio to chat with his radio/bar buddy, Gary Jeff Walker.
“I knew of Gary Jeff for years,” Shank told the Northern Kentucky Tribune, “and finally got to meet him. Yes, I consider him a friend.”
The wonders of radio.
Walker makes many friends weekly – he tends bar at the Crow’s Nest and Restaurant in East Price Hill, Tuesdays (11 a.m.-7 p.m.); Sit ‘N Bull Café, Southgate ( Wednesday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., and Saturday 11 a.m.– 2 p.m.) and Strong’s Brick Oven Pizza, Newport (Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.).
Now that is some kinda rebounding.
“I’ll always land on my feet,” Walker says, “I was a breech baby – I came out that way.”