Now you
have opened lots of cans of Beer. TABO! It comes to mind how one
night when it had flooded and we actually waded through the flood waters to get
to the woman's restroom. It must have been fancied up compared to the
men's restroom.
Kehrees
Cafe-the wonder of eating Mrs Kehrees Chili on a cold Saturday with
Baby.
Also-remember one of the LHS students on a return trip from Tabo
burning her nose with a cigarette car lighter and showing up at school the next
day. Will not tell who it was - but you know who you
are!
A dance
down memory lane!!!
Barbara Tabb Jarman:
Thanks again for a
great issue of TLC - I really enjoyed it, and got
some more education at the
same time. And, I'm a little embarrassed
that I didn't think of 'Tabo'
when the gauntlet was thrown to come up
with some notorious place that we all
knew about. My only experience with Tabo was older than most - back to
when it was run by 'Lige' Neer and his wife; and, I'm not sure it was anything
but a roadside cafe of sorts then.
My maternal
grandparents lived in the house at the top of that hill, and when I'd be out
there visiting with them and we'd go into town, we would sometimes stop in there
to deliver fresh eggs to the Neers. That place must have had a long history, and
only had a 'reputation' of sorts while I was in high school. What I remember of
it from 'way back when' is pretty dull, but it 'stuck' nonetheless. I think I
was about 5 years old. I had made a pet of one of my grandmother's banty
roosters, and she said I could take it along when we went to town that day. We
stopped down at Tabo to deliver some eggs, and there was the little social visit
that normally took place. Then, all of a sudden, Mrs. Neer went berserk and
started running around and screaming like the devil himself was in there. I'd
never seen anything like that, and it scared me! It turned out to be only
my chicken, when she could bring herself to tell us what set her off like
that. She was deathly afraid of chickens. So, I took my chicken outside,
and I think that was the last time I ever set foot inside the building at Tabo
Creek.
Still, there were
remnants of times past, things that indicated that it might once have been a
thriving place for families. I remember picnic tables behind it, and some kind
of cable ride that went across the area that would have flooded from time to
time. The cable ran perpendicular to the highway behind the building, and I wanted in
the worst way to grab that T-handle that hung beneath a wheel on the cable, and do a Tarzan bit -
but, it was not at all safe, so is only a vague memory now. I wish I knew its
history. Maybe it was just there to cross the expanse during a flood.
Anybody know?
I did go out there one
night in my senior year, when a bunch of us
decided to do something a little
more exciting than 'drag' Main Street -
but, I sat in one of the cars with
Enner Jane Kendrick, because we both had sense enough to know that the news of
us being 'in there' would beat us home, and we didn't think it would be worth
it. It must not have been much worth it to the rest of them either, because they
didn't stay long, and didn't know what all the 'hype' had been about. I
think it had already passed its heyday by then. I'd venture a guess that
it all had to do with its having a dance floor of sorts, and somebody was smart
enough to capitalize on knowing that teens wanted and needed a place to
congregate.
There was Teen Town, of
course, at the Auditorium - but, that was only once a week, and was maybe a
little too structured, too formal, and it didn't last long. A later Teen
Town was held at the Elks building, but it didn't last long either, and probably
for the same reason. I'm sure that those who did frequent Tabo are none the
worse off for it - look at Norma Gadt, for instance (and, congrats on those 45+
years of marriage). I probably missed some fun times by shying away from Tabo
Inn's 'reputation', whether deserved or not. Likewise, Mittieville (or,
"The Peckerwood Club") had a certain reputation, as Shirley
Guevel-Jones said; and, it probably all went back to the fact that most of our
parents had lived through the Prohibition Era, and any kind of drinking carried
a social stigma that was deeply ingrained in them. That was why Block 42 had a
name, because of the drinking establishments in that area, and because of the
notions that our parents passed along to us because of what they had
experienced.
My mother has been
enjoying TLC while here for a visit, and she
remembers a lot of things that
have been mentioned, and then some. BTW, she said it was not Libo's or Lebo's -
it was Liebow's. She always was a good speller, and she said they bought
their first furniture there when we moved down on 7th St., back in about
1940.
Lest we forget just how
sheltered we were back then, and how wrong
some of our impressions
were - I guess we who attended Central School were not too fond of Arnold School
kids either, Susan. Now, why was that? The funny thing is - we
didn't even know each other. And, when finally thrown together in Jr.
High, many of us formed some of our strongest and most-lasting friendships with
those former enemies from the other school. Then, more newfound friends when the
Catholic School kids joined us the freshman year. All from that same little town
- but, I think it shows just how much 'school' was the core of our lives, and we
all always thought that 'ours' was the best.
I remember much about
Central - Miss Mike, Mrs. Conger, Miss
Torrence (3rd & 4th for me), Mrs.
Gruber, and Miss Jennie Rush, the
principal - even kids who were just there
for a short time. And, the
janitor - his name was Mayde, and WE were taught
to address him as Mr., not by his first name. Let's hear it for Central!
(Tongue in cheek
here).
Ed: Is she implying Arnold kids didn't have
good manners??? There's trouble brewing.
Once in a while,
Mrs.Wiley would substitute for a sick teacher -
but, that wasn't often, and
she was probably glad of it. I am proud of the education we all received in
Lexington, and I do think it was 'the best'. When I read these letters,
and how well everyone writes, I think of all those sentences we had to parse in
Miss Gruber's class (jr. high), and the further excellent instructions we got
from Mrs. Seiter and Mrs. Cullom (and maybe others whose classes I
was
not in, like the
Rutherfords). And, when I read what passes for English from people who did NOT
get that kind of education, I can see a vast difference. Has anyone else noticed
that? Let's add to that the
Lexington newspaper when it was really a
newspaper, thanks to John Shea and those who ran it back in those days. And,
Susan didn't even have spellcheck back then.
I have recently started
an e-mail correspondence with Joe Parks,
after Gordon Wright got his addy for
me while I was up home. We've had some really good laughs about grade
school, and I've Forwarded a copy of TLC to him and suggested that he add his
name to the list. His folks had a precursor to what is most of 'uptown'
Lexington now, in the building at 9th and Main, which was reputedly visited by
Jesse James when it was a bank. Oh, we do have history in that town, and are
happy to even include Jesse James as part of our claim to fame.
To Jack Gueguen -
N.16th was familiar territory to me, as I started
going over there a lot in
the 6th grade, when Sue Cousins lived in the
second house from the
Park. I probably wore out a pair of roller skates on those sidewalks, and
knew every bad crack in them. Don't forget the names Yates, Wilhoit, Reed,
Green, Lutes, Paine (around the corner), in addition to those mentioned. Now
I'll ask you one - do you remember finding a tennis racket in your pillow case
one night when Joyce had a bunking party, and not being a bit amused by
it? I'll still not rat on who thought of putting it there, but assure you
that it was not Joyce. I have been enjoying hearing from all you Gueguens, so
keep them coming. That goes for everybody - keep them coming.
I'm working on getting
Gene to write down some of his tales about
Slick's vote for Alkire's 10th
Street facility as the most 'notorious'
of Lexington's past. It truly was!
(Maybe that one was too much for even Slick to handle. haha). Gene used to
deliver laundry, and I assure you that his knowledge of the place comes only
from that job. He has a few stories from when he delivered ice, too - but, he
needs to tell them in his own words. I'll try to get him to cut loose - they're
funny. I do remember sneaking into the balcony of the Auditorium when
there was a town meeting called, to try to shut down the bawdy house; and,
everything came to a dead halt when the 'madame' came forth with a book listing
their regular clientele. Meeting adjourned!
And, with that, I'll
adjourn myself here, and look forward to the next issue.
Janice Jiovenale Tubiolo:
writes that she read her father TLC
#19 about Block 42 and "did it get him started!
He loved it and remembered that Floyd Boldridge's father, Tom, opened the
barbershop and worked there with his 3 sons after they learned the craft from
him. Also, he mentioned that the barber who worked out of the Palace Hotel
was Joe Bales and that there was two other taxi cab companies: Virgil West, who
worked out of Malo's Bar and Billy Knox, who worked out of the Pool Hall.
Seems their incomes came primarily from customers of the two places. Makes
you wonder how many other elders have all these wonderful
memories locked in
their memory banks? His 83-year old memory sure works
fine."
TLC #20: July 8, 2001