Mystery of The Ghost Crews

In the end, both Buffalo and Rochester benefitted from the increased tourism that the ghost crews brought to both cities. Only one ghost band remaind and that suited Shaun Carlton, his trio, and other jazz musicians just fine. This ghost band haunted a closed night club on Genesee Street. At the player piano sat a pair of dark green pants worn by pair of alien balls, with antennae extended and at the drums, sat a white pair of beltless bell-bottoms also worn by a pair of the balls and a single ball did the drumming, mostly on the cymbals, while a pair of hand like critters played the stand up bass.

Instead of menacing the cities’ poplace and harassing utility crews, the ghost crews turned out to be a blessing in disguise for both Buffalo and Rochester, and the ghost bands helped make traditional jazz more popular than rap or heavy metal. Not only did it suit Shaun Carlton and his trio just fine, but supplied drummer Paul Stevens with a wealth of joke material for his monologue and one-liners that the drummer-comedian never even expected, even in his wildest dreams. Everyone ended up having a ball with Paul Stevens’ new comedy routine, the product of an alien invasion that turned out to not be so menacing after all.

Paul Hansen said,"Dave, what you encountered was a ‘ghost crew’, which at first glance, looks like a regular line crew, but consists of three pairs of pants each worn by a pair of rubber ball like aliens with their antennae fully extended. Those antennae are used to communicate with one another. They usually come out late at night. You must have thought you were talking to a regular phone company line crew." Dave Norton replied," As weird as that sounds, that explains a few things." Jeff chimed in," One other way you can tell a ghost crew from regular line crews is by the vans they travel in. Ghost crews travel in driverless vans known as drones, on which the windows are usually either frosted or blanked over." Paul Stevens, Drummer of the jazz trio added, "Another twist to this, Dave, is the Ghost Band, usually a jazz trio, but sometimes a quartet." Shaun Carlton added,"I’ve seen at least a half a dozen of these ghost bands throughout the city and a like number in Buffalo."

Paul and Jeff Hansen decided to go home, which was a couple blocks from the Nathaniel Rochester Night Club. Jeff said,"Good Night, everybody."

Paul Stevens, the drummer and jokester replied,"Good night, sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite." With that, everybody had a hardy laugh and left. The Ghost band that had haunted the Nathaniel Rochester club had gone elsewhere to do their thing, for Paul Stevens had removed the cymbals from their stands on his drum set and locked them in a safe, while Shaun Carlton locked his piano and Pat Stevens, Paul’s brother, took his stand up bass with him, for he had an engagement with the community symphony orchestra that weekend as did Shaun Carlton. Drummer Paul Stevens was to march with the Empire Staters marching band that Saturday as well.

Jeff and Paul got together with their dad and Bill Stevens and his line crew to discuss whether to try to rid Rochester of the ghost crews. At 9 am , Saturday morning, Bill Stevens and his crew arrived at the Hansens’ home and the meeting got started. Jeff and Paul served refreshments to everybody. Jeff asked Bill,"What do you think of the idea of getting rid of the Ghost Crews?" Bill replied,"Perhaps it is not a bad idea to get rid of some of them.