A drive in the country and a visit to a couple of my old haunts!
Sunday I took the TC for a little country drive my first stop was Sublette, Illinois near a spot that I worked at 30 years ago. This is a little town with a population of about 300 and I had not been back in 10 years or so and was looking forward to a cold beer at the Coachman Inn. This fine establishment was my local stop every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for five years. Over the years I would stop by and they would always remember me by name. It was a welcome stop.
When I got there I found it was closed, no sign of life at all. I saw a new bar in a building that used to be a Mobile gas station in time gone by, so I went in for a beer. What happened to the Coachman I asked? I was told that they had been closed now for about 10 years, and the Mobile station conversion bar had got their license. Another one of my drinking establishments gone!!
Onward to the big town of Utica, Illinois to Duffy's Tavern. This was another Friday, Saturday, Sunday place when I worked nearby. I had not stayed away from this place as long and knew it was still around. What I was not ready for was my first sight of the tornado damage from last April 20th. This place had really been hammered, one of the town's bars had been completely destroyed with several killed.
The bartender showed me a photograph book of all the damage to Duffy's. Most of the major stuff had been repaired by now. While sitting at the bar drinking a cold one I was watching the news reports on how Florida was getting battered by the latest hurricane. I could not help to wonder which of my favorite Florida establishments will not be there the next time I visit.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment