A Man's Character
One summer while attending the family reunion in East Saint Louis, IL, I stayed a few days at my dad's place. We had lots of fun together. We were like two kids once again. It was really quite amazing spending real time with him. We lived together from the time I was about 6 until I left home for service. So he was always a father to me. This time was different, even the greeting and embrace was different. It was firmer and more intense. It was like old buddies seeing each other after years of departure (had been 20+ years). Our talks were more serious and more adult in nature. We even commented on girls and women. We still talked about the character of a man. I'll never get away from that because he's always made sure I had a great awareness of a man's character.

Haymore's Variety Store
Dad noticed that I kept late nights. One Friday night he asked if I wanted to go to work with him, without thinking I agreed. Out of habit I looked at the time, "Damn, it's 1:00am!" Man dad's like Seventy-XX and he's still a night owl. Dad drove, we motored over to 15th and Lynch. I looked ahead and the most beautiful building I'd ever seen appeared before my very eyes, "Haymore's Variety Store". This building didn't have glamour but it had character! I had been away form home so long I thought I'd never see this amazing architecture again. Yet there it was as indescribable as ever. (picture below). There were things going on inside all day and other things that only happened only after midnight. It was kind of like a Spike Lee film only much more intense. The only thing missing from the old days was the cloud of smoke that used to linger above your head. Can you believe even hard core "Cat Daddy's", pimps, thugs and players are smoking less these days? You probably don't even want any of the chicks that hang out in here...

I played the juke box (they had 500 songs, all blues) while dad went up front and got some drinks. Around 4:00am Wingman was picking up the drop from the jukebox, he commented that there was a five dollar bill in the drop and that I must have done that cause nobody else ever put that much in, (I like to keep the music blasting and party rocking). Funny thing, men and women came in but none of the women stayed more that ten minutes, Hummm!

While talking on the phone the other day, I asked dad how the night job was going. He informed me that during a session one night his wingman was bitch slapped by one of the younger players, who has a reputation of having already murdered 4-5 people and was a certifiable Bad Ass. So he (wingman) doesn't get out much any more. I haven't seen him lately cause I don't go there any more either!

I'd never seen a anyone slapped so hard they'd leave their job and dad quit too!

Best Fish House

Again while visiting East Saint Louis, IL, dad asked what I wanted to eat for dinner. He offered chicken, barbeque, steaks, Chinese (They're famous for Chinese food, go figure). I inquired "Where can we get some good catfish?", he took me to "Best Fish House". The people in there were very friendly as was I. There were about 8 customers including me and dad. All the employees (6) wore "Best Fish House" t-shirts. After a few minutes of "Flirting" I asked the lady if she had anymore of those t-shirts. She said yeah, let me check with the boss. she explained that I was an out-of-towner and wanted to take a shirt back home to Texas. Dad said "I'll take one too if you got it. The man asked our sizes and returned with two shirts.  When the other customers saw this they immediately asked for one too, the owner realizing he was in a quandary, went back to his office and brought out 6 more...

We got two family fish orders and proceeded out. Dad asked "You want some barbeque?" There was another crew just outside the building selling barbeque. We purchased a couple rib slabs and he gave us a whole ?brisket?  (You can see the barbeque grill outside the building to the left). So then today dad sends me this news clipping.

  Bottom-line, I'm sixty-one and I'm still not old enough nor tough enough to run with dad!