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 firsthand.
“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 West 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.”