Chapter Twelve - Jaco's Pizza is Born 1969



Bob McGawin



Bob McGowan and daddy made a deal about the store front down from Pepe's. Daddy started to decorate and set up the building. We painted the walls black half way up and strips of different colors all the way around the wall and the ceiling was black too. The floor was blue in the center, on the outside of the center there was a checkered board type design. That was painted different colors all around the rest of the room. We built a wall about twenty-five feet from the back door and that was the kitchen. There was a bathroom off to the right of the building. The front was half glass, half a wall. The next thing we needed was a name. Guy came up with take Momma Lois and make it Momma Louise's, or take Jack and drop the k and add an o and it would sound Italian. That's how Jacos came about . . .

Guy helped to do the painting, he did a good job but he decided that he wanted a beer and got a draft and didn't turn the spout off and ran out a whole keg of beer on the new floor. A man named Al did the carpentering and another customer did the plumbing and so on. We didn't have too much work ourselves. It was all being done for us. This man that was in treatment with Guy named Tex was in the sign business in Clarksville, so he made us a JACO's PIZZA neon sigh to hang at the street. Andy Allen did all the electrical work for us. The oven and the counters, we bought at the use restaurant equipment place and all the tables and chairs, booths. Lots of people helped, customers just did what needed to be done. A guy named Sizemore did sheet metal work and made us a hood to go over the ovens for exhaust, well it was a family thing. If we were to pay for all the labor alone, it would have been in the high thousands of dollars. But the people did it because most people saw momma and daddy as family . . .                           

Jaco's First
Grade
-A-

Remember that momma and daddy lived in the house behind the Pepe's. Because they closed, Pepe's they had to move and we ended up in a small three bedroom brick house on Robertson Rd. The landlord was Yes, a customer of theirs, John Fox. He was a constable and he came in Pepe's two times a week for pizza and liked daddy he would stand and shoot the crap with daddy. I will tell you now that daddy was the front man of the restaurant and momma was the back bone. She did all the accounting and ordering of supplies and prep work like hand cutting the onions, and ten pounds at a time and daddy's main job was shooting the breeze with people and going to the bank for deposits. It seemed to work out well for them . . .

   

We opened in early 1969 and we had a great opening, all the folks were so happy that momma and daddy had opened up a new place. For some it was home away from home. The product that they put out at Jaco's was even better than before from Pepe's. It was a real family place you could bring your children and have a good time. We had a juke box and a cigarette machine and a pinball machine. That was how daddy and momma paid what they had for the expense of opening. The machine men lent them money and he would take all the money from the machines as payment for the loan. When the loan was paid off, they would start splitting it half and half. I worked on week ends and Wednesday night. I got a salary of seventy-five dollars a week no matter what time I worked . . .

I can remember the night we opened. Momma had a new hair do and daddy had a smile that went crossed his whole face. They were happy that it was packed. There were seven booths and about eight tables that seated six and they were all full with people. It was a monster compared to small two table place that we came from. Before we opened the doors, the man that they leased the Pepe's from, Don Hunt, came in. Wow momma got mad, she yelled at him to get out and she turned into the kitchen. Daddy said to Don Hunt, "that he better leave now because she went into the kitchen to get a knife." Don said, "I just came to wish you luck." Daddy said back," I am not kidding man I would leave if I was you." I think momma had a few drinks to celebrate. We did way over anything anyone projected that we would sale in one night. It was a hit. Everyone liked the new place. There was one problem with the new place, the parking was bad, we only had space for five cars in front and we had permission to part at the JB Cook Auto Parts, next door. The man that owned the service station on the other side let us park there too, so it really wasn't that bad. It was nothing that a few free pizzas wouldn't fix. That was the start of a twenty-one-year love affair with Jaco's and the people of West Nashville . . .

Miss Daffney Sanders

There were kids that looked to momma and daddy as a mother and father figures and they helped many to stay out of trouble. They tried to keep me out of trouble but could not keep me straight. There was Daffany Sanders. She got hooked up with a man that ended up in prison. He escaped and she didn't know he was on the run. He ask her to take him to Georgia with a friend of his. She ended up taking him and his friend there and when they got there they both got out of the car and was standing outside and she sat in the car. She heard a (what she thought was a gun shot) gun shot and she took off and left them both there. She thought she had witnessed a murder. She came to momma and told her about it. Momma said DO NOT tell anyone anything until you hear back from me. Momma called Chester Duffield. He was mommas go to man when the law was involved. He went to see Daffeny and she told him all that happened and where. He told her don't tell anyone else what happened and I will get the guy my way. Well, old Duffield got his man as usual and Daffeny didn't have to testify at all. She brings that up every time I see her, how momma saved her life because she didn't have to go to jail for transporting a fugitive . . .

 

Kathy Walker - Scott - Jiles

There were Judy Brown and she and Cathy Walker were close friends. They were a couple years older than I but they loved momma and daddy so they didn't mind me tagging along. Cathy was getting married to this guy from school named Eddie Scott and the weekend before they got married Cathy and Judy were in Jacos and they started talking about what Cathy had not gotten for wedding gifts. She came up with that she needed lawn chairs. It wasn't too long before Judy said, "hay it night lets go to Charlotte Park and steal some from yards." We went and Eddie was gonna let us out and go around the block and come back and get us and we were to hop from yard to yard and get lawn chairs. I grabbed a chair and so did Judy, Cathy on the other hand, got a chair that you could lay down in. Judy and I took off and left Cathy in the road and Eddie was not anywhere to be seen. We finely found him and we had three chairs and a lay down lawn chair. Cathy said you damn guys left me and I had the big chair all by myself. There wasn't much we would not do . . .

We started giving away a free pizza for new babies. When they would have a baby and when they brought it to Jaco's for the first time they got the pizza whatever kind you wanted. That was a really good promotion. It was a way to get to know people and their children. We also gave away a pizza for marriages and OFF TO WAR and BACK HOME again pizza's. Yes we had many young boys that were customers that went to Vietnam. There was Larry Loftis's nephew Clay Loftis. He had gotten in some trouble with the law and they gave him an option war or jail. He chooses war. That was a good thing, when he came back, he was much more a mature man. He ended up marring a girl from Alaska that he met while he was in the service and he went to work for metro in the mechanic’s department of the fire dept. There was Roy Chunn. He went and he had some bad stuff after he came home that affected him but he made it OK. He moved to Denver Co. so I didn't see him anymore till our trip to Denver that is coming up later in the book . . .

Howard Taylor

John Jiles is another one of mommas and daddy's kids that went to war. He was dating a friend of mine Nancy Hibdon. I was with her the day that she saw him off to Vietnam. He was such a good-looking guy in his uniform. He came back and never quite made a recovery from the drugs he started in Vietnam, They only dated a short time after he came home. Nancy was a running mate of mine. She was at least ten years older than I was and she was a hell cat. She drank, messed around with lots of guys mostly cops that were married. John ended up in an old school bus in his mom and dad’s backyard. He finely got it together enough to start dating again. He dated and then married Cathy Scott. Remember she had been married to Eddie Scott. She ended up marring him and they had a son. When they divorced, he met a young girl named Molly Parker, she also was a customer of Jaco's. They had a hell of a long marriage through hail and high water. When he died, he was buried at the McCory Lane Arm Force Cemetery. I went to his funeral and it was so said. His son was no where in site, Cathy never let John see him. When it came to John, he was the only person, man or woman, that I was totally afraid of . . .

 
There were five boys that went to Vietnam I can't remember all their names but there was one of the crew that didn't pass the physical and he stayed home, his name was Howard Taylor. When they all came home, they were going to a welcome home party and they had a wreck and it killed all five and the one that didn't go to Vietnam, didn't get hurt hardly at all, WEIRD HUH! They came home to die. It was so sad . . . 

 Next chapter is about the cross country trip we took and the trips I was taking on speed . . .

Chapter Thirteen - Over The Road Trip To Hell And Back



Momma & Daddy
&
 Chester Duffield
in Uniform

                          The New Jaco's

We had only been in Jaco’s six months or so and Momma and Daddy hired a man named Mark Hitchcock to work some with us. He was an insurance salesman that had just gotten divorced. He sold insurance to large companies and made good money. His wife took him to the cleaners, he said. He asks for them to give him a job because the court gave her almost everything they owned. The money he made at Jaco’s was his spending money. He gave Kathy a job and Judy Brown too, at the insurance company he worked for. He was a cool kinda guy, everyone liked him, he just fit in. A couple months after he was hired, the court contacted him and told him, that he had to give the car he had to his wife, then he  was to take the one she had and it would be at his expense. He asks momma and daddy if they wanted to take it to her. She had moved to Denver Colorado. By this time momma and daddy had a few bucks so they decided that we would take a trip to Denver. He made a deal that he would pay for the gas for our trip. Mark was to take care of all the money things and Roy Redfarron and Cathy, a few of our friends worked while we went . . .

I slept a lot while daddy drove. I really didn't want to go. I was afraid that I might miss something at home. I was coming off speed I could not take any when I was with mommy and daddy. I was a hyper person anyway and speed made me noticeable more hyper. I couldn't take speed while I was with them. When you come off speed, you sleep 24/7 till your body catches up on the sleep that you have been without because you take speed. They knew that I had been taking some speed but they really didn’t know how much. I on an average would take five to seven tabs a day. I was not interested in the travel. I remember that there was a lot of snow in Denver. There was a monument of some guy at the top of some mountain and daddy woke me up and said why did you come if you were gonna sleep all the way. I didn’t tell him what was on my mind but he made it clear that he would put me on a bus in Denver if I didn’t want to enjoy the trip. I said please send me to myself. Of course he didn’t mean it . . .



The Brown Derby

When we got to Denver we looked up Roy Chun remember, he is one of the kids that came back from Vietnam. We went across to the Northern Western part of the states, Missouri, Kansas, then to Denver. We went through Utah and then to Reno Nevada over to Carson City. The first stop where we stay in California was Sacramento in Northern California. We then would go over to Oakland. We then down the coast of California. I wanted to go LA and Hollywood. We were to go back up the state of California to go to Bakersfield and up to Porterville to see one of Guy’s friends the shrink that he met at Cumberland. Our plan was to come back by old Route 66. By the time we left Denver, I had caught up on my sleep and felt like I was gonna make it thought this trip. Darn! I have to admit that when we got to California that I was enjoying the trip. It is kinda like I was a kid again and that we were a family again, I say again we really never like other families. There were all kinds of places and things that I had seen on TV. Hollywood was as cool as any place I had ever been. We got to Hollywood and Vine and saw the Brown Derby. That was in mid 1969 and all the hippies were out . . .



Orange Groves in
Porterville, Ca

Guy had contacted his friend from Cumberland Heights he lived in Porterville, Ca. Lou Smith, remember he was the psychiatrist. Guy told him that I needed some counseling. He made it to where momma and daddy were not with us and when he got me alone he asks what Guy was talking about. Guy had seen me depressed, did I forget to tell you that by this time I would get depressed and I sleep 24/7 till I would wake up and wonder what day it was. One day when Guy was recording he stopped the session and came out to the car where I was and ask me what was wrong. He was recording a song about leaving and heartache and he saw me go outside and thought that I might run away. I was just looking for attention from Guy you know he wasn't showing me enough by letting me come to the session with him. I was so into the orange groves. They were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, remember I was an old farm girl. They were such straight rolls. I saw the vineyard's, rolls and rolls of them . . .

Guy knew that momma and daddy were always drinking and fighting so he thought that I would benefit from some sessions with Doc Smith. Mind you, he was an alcoholic and needed help himself. I told him every thing was OK with me. I told him that Guy was just protective of me. Doc Smith asks me again later while we were alone are you sure you don’t need to talk to someone about what is on your mind. I told him that I didn’t need anything from anyone. That should have been a sign that I did need help. Before we left, I did talk to him a bit about my need to have hero’s in my life and how most were alcoholic. He told me that hero worship is something that people use to keep at distance from real people. People create them so they will not be let down and have any reasons to be depressed or to use alcohol? He said that I probably related with alcoholics and that was why they were all alcoholic, What? That made no sense to me. Now as I look back at it that was a true statement. I have over the years had a void place in my heart that I tried to fill with someone and I do that still today. Another case of me having a chance to get help, it is not the last time in my life that I turned away help . . .

We left on our trip back home after we had been in Porterville two days. Our plan was to go back like I, said route sixty six. Next it was Los Vegas WOW! We got into Vegas at night and I woke up in heaven. I wanted out of the car but daddy said we didn't have the money to stop there and I was not of age anyway. I am so glad that I went on this trip because I got to see J.C. and Birdy. When stopped to see J.C. and Birdie, they acted just like I was family. It gave me the warm fuzzes seeing them again. They were great people and they mean a lot to me. We went to Gallup, N.M. that's a major marketplace for the Navajo Indians. Real live Indians just not like in movies because they were dressed just like all us. There were no feathers, no skin showing. Albuquerque is where we got off Route 66 in West New Mexico that's where we got interstate 40 through tall the way to Tennessee . . . 



 I love Neon

That route took us right up to the door of Jaco's. It was still there and doing well. I was ready to get out of that car. I went on three days of being drunk when I got home. Momma and daddy never asked where I was. I have never thought how much I was drinking back then till I wrote this book. I was a drunk looking for somewhere to land, and land I did. I was heading for a life long job and not knowing it. Shortly after we got home, I started really trying to hook Jimmy. You could say that I was in love but as you know as you learn about me reading this book, I didn't know what love was . . .

Chapter Fourteen - Seventeen and Running Wild

I Look Like I Am Lost
And
I Was I Just Didn't Know It
Till Years Later

Yes I was seventeen now old enough to know better than to do some of the stuff I was doing. I was always at a party and drinking. I had an ego so big that I didn't think nothing could touch me. There wasn't anything I wanted to do that I didn't end up doing. I hung around all the time with Nancy Hibdon and she didn't have the greatest reputation. As a matter of fact her nick name to all the police she knew was The F.B.I. which stands for The F'''ing Big Indian. She taught me how to drive fast and showed me all the parking places were that the police would be! Yes parking places, there was a place behind the old VA hospital on White Bridge Road that at any time you could find police either sleeping or well I'll leave that open to your imagination . . .


If the truth was known, she was also who taught me what black widows and RJS's and white crosses were, before I went on our trip. She said that. It was a miracle drug that it would keep you body going long after you head goes to sleep. Kinda what I was doing before she gave me them and showed me where to go to get them. There was a Dr. Snapp that would give prescription of them out to anyone back then they were used for weight loss. The FBI only weight 130 lbs. and was six feet tall and he still he gave them ti her. He got caught doing that and they took his licence away. Darn we had to find another source to get the speed that keep us going. But never fear we found someone to supply them by the hundreds. It sounds like I am bragging and I am sort of. It was something I saw all my life from momma and daddy. Drink and party and fight I just didn’t get into fighting, yet. Really the way I lived from sixteen to twenty-five was what made me what I am today. I can't tell you just now but you will understand what I mean when you read on in my book . . .

Best Hamburgers
Pinball Machines
in Nashville 

By this time I was staying out all night and sleeping all day. My normal day consisted of getting an average of five or six hours sleep and then I would go to work at Jaco's for a while and then HIT THE ROAD to either Marty's or down to the Buger Boy on Seventeenth and Division and play the pinball. There was a kid that was only about fifteen that hung with me. His momma and dad trusted me and Jaco to not let him get in any trouble. He would go to the Burger Boy with me and watch me play. Remember I said I hung out with people like Tompall Glazer and Captain Midnight and Roger Miller, well they were all down there playing too. They would have a crew there with them. The people that operated the Buger Boy loved it when we would all come in at the same time it was nothing for us to drop fifty or seventy-five dollars each. Tony Taylor was a boy’s name that had been hanging with me. I never let him drink or have any speed. He was OK with that he just wanted to hang. He was a good kid. Later on I will tell you about a motorcycle Tony painted for me . . .

I remember once going to the Burger boy late and all the gang had already left. I ask for a roll of quarters and went on to play the machine. Tony was with me and we were having a grand time (at three a.m.), I hit the machine for mega bucks and when I went to cash out the person working was new and told me "We don't pay out" and I told her "look I have played many times here and cashed out so you better get the owner of this place and tell them you were turning down one of their best customer's." She said, "well you are a minor and I just call the cops," and well it got very heated. So I said, "go ahead call the cops." She was shocked. She didn't know that half of metro were my friends. So she called and guess what, Bill McKerdy was the one that came. (remember him in the picture with all the WSM people) She was so mad when he told her, If I was you I'd pay her off, and so she did. The next time I came in, she was there but the owner was too and he told her in front of me to always pay off people that we know, they are seventy 5 percent of my sales. I wanted to say I told you so but I didn't . . .


There was a BBQ shop in down town Nashville called Charlie Nickens. It was cool cause they would get your order by sending car hops to your car. You never even had to get out of the car. That was good for me cause they never checked I.D.s and I was seventeen all you had to do was give a nice tip and you could get beer. The legal drink age then was eighteen. That was so funny cause when I was eighteen they changed it to twenty-one. They tried to keep me from drinking legal ( that was a joke) on my part. We were always tipping really well too. We ( Nancy and I or my very under age friend Tony Taylor and I ) had gotten so known by the car hops that all we had to do was drive up and park and they would just bring out our usual order. It was like that for most of their customers. If Nancy and I were down there, we were going to meet one of her boyfriends on the force. The metro jail and night court were just around the corner from Charlie Nickens . . .



My Buddy Andy
His Brother Bill
 Momma
With Mothers Day
 Present from Andy

 Andy Allen was a man that nobody knew very well. He came in all the time if you remember I talked about him being the man that did all the electrical wiring at Jaco's. He became a good friend of mine. He was three feet wide and five feet tall and had a burr hair cut and worn bib overhauls. What a site, he would go to hell and back for me. He was a friend first to momma and daddy but when I met him he and I knew we would be friends forever. He bought himself a Dodge Super Bee. It was bright yellow and had a spoiler on the back that was three feet tall. He and I would take off and do things like go to the Watch You Coat and Hat Saloon. It was a gay bar where they did female impersonation. Yes he was gay. He never brought anyone to our place and never embarrassed us in any way. He was a strange man. If you didn't know it, you would never know he was gay. Well it made no difference to anyone that came to Jaco's. After we closed Jaco's in 1985, he was one that kept in touch with us. There were not many that did that, just the closest ones like the cops and the ones that momma and daddy helped. Andy would come and take me and momma out to the Out Back Steakhouse to eat about once a month after daddy passed. It just goes to show that it isn't how important you are or how much money you have, it’s the heart and soul of the person that means the most when it comes to friendship . . .



There Is Nothing I Can Add To
 What Everyone Knows
 He Is A Gift



I spent a lot of time with momma then too. She would drink and take off with people like Doug Kershaw. He is the Raging Cajun from the music business. He wrote Louisiana Man and he had a hit record with it. He could play the fiddle better than most and not even put it under his chin. He would hold it down like a guitar. Momma and I went off with him one time and we stayed with him for three days. I drove and they drank and I took speed and drank. It was kinda fun cause he had a long black Cadillac limousine. We ended up at his pad and I went to sleep in the car while they went in and well, I don't have to say, do I you can guess can't you? I will leave that up to your imagination. Daddies never ever ask and we didn't tell . . .

There were many people that I called my friend. I told you about Nancy Hibden and how she was my partner in crime. She and I went to the Jerry Lewis telethon in 1969 when it was at the Municipal Auditorium. You could go right up to the stage back then. There were always lots of cops there. Nancy knew that someone she liked was gonna be there. We were told by the policeman that she went to see, that there was a man going around taking photo's of all the policemen and whoever was around them. This was 1968 and race riots were bad at that time. The police thought he was taking the photo's for that reason. They wanted me and Nancy to try and take the camera and take the film out of it and then put it back. They wanted to see what was on the film. Well I had a few drinks by then so I agreed to do it. The man went up to the stage and sat his camera down. I went up and got it and left out to the hall way and went into the bathroom and I could not get the film out of the camera. I left the camera in the bathroom and went out to tell the policeman that I could not get the film out. WELL BIG MISTAKE! The man came running down the hall with a policeman that didn't know what was going on and he yelled "she is the one." The policeman that was with him caught up with me and put me in cuffs . . .

Momma and daddy and Bill McKerdy was coming down the hall and saw me being cuffed. Momma and daddy had a few too many and  momma ran up to the policeman that put the cuffs on me and said, "what the hell are you doing?" By that time Nancy and the cop that ask me to do it came walking up and told momma and daddy what was going on. They pretended that Nancy was a policewoman and she took me into the bathroom and was supposed to search me and my purse. We managed to get the film out of the camera and dumped the camera into the trash can. When we came out the man said "she most of had a partner and she handed it off to them." They pretended that they were gonna take me to jail and put me in a cop car. There were three policemen that got into the car and well they all thanked me and I said"well that sob (I wasn't that polite) deserved it." Bobby Hill who is a black policeman that was driving the car said to me"that black sob you mean?" I said well I didn't want to say that because you were in the car. He said, "call a spade a spade," and we all laughed. They knew the man was behind us somewhere following us so he could press charges so they stopped at the street and told him where to park. Then they went behind the court house and we all got out of the car and they took the hand cuffs off me and one of the guys took me back to the auditorium to my car. They went up stairs and told the man that I had escaped. Believe it or not that is my story and I am sticking to it. At this point in time Bobby Hill is the only policeman still alive that remembers that event. That wasn't the only stupid thing I had done by no means . . .




One of the lunch counters
 in Nashville, Tenn 

The first large-scale organized sit-ins in Nashville occurred on February 13, 1960.The Nashville sit-ins were part of a nonviolent direct action campaign to end racial segregation at lunch counters in Nashville Tennessee. The sit-ins lasted from February to May of 1960 and were notable for their early success and emphasis on disciplined nonviolence. Many of the organizers of the Nashville sit-ins went on to become important leaders in the U.S. Civil Movement. April 4, 1968: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in Memphis to lead demonstration of striking sanitation workers, is killed by an assassin. Lunch counter "sit-ins" had already gained widespread national attention when black students and others did the same thing in Greensboro, N.C., Nashville and other communities across the South earlier in the year . . .


http://www.library.nashville.org/civilrights/photos.htm


Click Here to see more photo's of civil rights in Nashville in the 60's


Eight years later after the 1960 sit-ins we were still fighting the race battle. I never understood racism anyway. Maybe because I was for six or seven years wishing I was a part of my friends Lula Mays (from Hartsville) family. I did not think that it might be even wrong. The point is, I didn’t think at all a lot, back then. I was caught up in the moment. Blinded to the fact that blacks were treated wrong for so many years. As I look back on it, I see that there are always two sides to every coin. It took many years for me to see my own racism. If I was allowed to be able to see someone who is dead, besides my mom and dad, it would be Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan. They are the family that gave me love and never once thought, should I not love this child just because she is white? I know that the police in Nashville were waiting for trouble after Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered.in 1968. I believe that the most important three people in my 58 years were, John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King. Whose life's were cut short because of what they believed in. Above are some facts I looked up on the sit-ins of the sixties and a photo of one of the lunch counter's while the sit-in’s were happening in Nashville . . .

We can now go back to my life at seventeen. I remember the first time I took a straight shot of whiskey. Not something to brag about but, I had gone to the drag races with Bill Jones, a guy I had a crush on. He had a girlfriend that went too. I thought that he invited just me. I was very disappointed when he came to pick me up with her in the car. We went to the races and he raced his 68 Mustang. When you drag race, you let some air out of your tires to get better traction. When it was over, he didn't put air back in the tires and we were doing about ninety miles an hour on the interstate. We were swaying back and forth. He reached under his seat and pulled out a pint of Very Old Barton took a sip then handed it over to his girlfriend and then he said to me,"want a swig?" I of course said yes. I took a big gulp and I thought that I was gonna gag to death but I never let them know. I would die first because I wanted him to think I was cool. They were about ten years older than I was. That was the first drink of whiskey but not the last sorry to say . . .

Talking about my first drink of whiskey I can also remember my first and only shot of moonshine. Andy Allen and Roy Redfarren and Larry Loftis and momma and I went to a shack on Sullivans Ridge. Larry knew this old man who lived in a one room shack. It has a pot belly stove for heat and cooking and a chair or two and a cot for a bed. It was dawn on Easter 1970. Larry was playing the guitar and the old guy played the banjo and me momma and the other two was singing. It’s a wonder the coon dogs didn't come to see who was making all those awful sounds. We were drinking beer but had run out. The old man asks "if you don't mind drinking moonshine I got some and its real smooth." We all agreed that was OK. Out from under the floor came a mason jar of clear liquid looking stuff. Larry was first, and he took big swiggggg and when he came up for air, it nearly blew his eye balls out. Then he passed it to momma and she well lets just say she was a Yankee and had never even seen or drank any moonshine before. She choked and gagged and I was stupid enough to try it myself, you know I had to empress Larry. I thought vodka was yucky. It is nothing compared to moonshine. I got very snockered ( that Marine for drunk ) that Easter morning . . .


 When I woke up, the old man and Larry and Andy was still playing music. Momma and I had passed out and Roy Redfarren had left. Boy, was it a learning lesson for me. What was the lesson I learn? Moonshine was never ever gonna be my booze of choice. I had two hangovers not one but two. Momma was just as bad as I was. SMOOTH my but, smooth as sandpaper. The old man cooked some eggs and bacon on the pot belly stove and we ate just enough to be polite. When I saw the eggs, I thought that I was gonna be sick. I went out to the car and went back to sleep. We stayed there for two days and I finely told momma I am going home, and asking her, "do you want to go?" She said,"no Andy will bring me home." Four days later momma and Andy came dragging in, again, Daddy said nothing. That was the weirdest way I ever spent Easter morning . . .

When momma sobered up, she told me where they went and what they did. Her Larry and Andy went to the Narrows of the Harpeth and sat out there and sang and drank. She told me that Larry started talking about when he was in Korea in the 50's. He had a bunch of guys he was in the platoon with, They were crossing a river there and they got incoming fire and it wiped half of the platoon out. He said, "the water was red with blood. It had bothered him for many years," and momma came up with the ideal that if he crossed the Harpth he would get over his nightmares. So out she goes wading into the swift water of the Harpth. She had a Mo-Mo on, (a dress that is just sown up on each side and with a hole in the neck and two holes for arms), and it was ankle length. Larry kept telling momma not to get in the water she was gonna get hurt or drown. She didn't listen to him. The current knocked her down and well Larry had to take his shoes off and go rescue her. Yes that's my momma, when she was drunk she was as apt to do stupid things, if she wanted too. No one could or would stop her if she had set her mind to it. That is just one of many what I call our DRUNKOLOGUE"S. You know like Johnny Carson had a monologue, she and I had a drunk a log. I didn't see Larry for a couple weeks. He went to his camp in Smithville. He went there a lot by himself. He was a lonely guy and such a sweet heart . . .



Daddy in Back The Blonde Is Betty
The FBI  (Nancy) Eye Are Closed 
Jimmy Clifton Peeking Behind
Momma And Her
"I am Drunk Smile"

I started by then to go to Nina's pie wagon just because she treated me like family. Larry didn't have to be there, I had give up on him and directed my energy to other people he was too nice a guy to take advantage of my advances to him. I was only seventeen and I could go to Nina's and drink a beer and not worry about being busted. She would fix me a grilled ham and cheese because she knew that we don't eat regular meals we just hit and miss. We would go at three a.m. to Linbaulls in down town Nashville and that was our main meal of the day because we worked at night and slept most of the day . . .

Well anyway there was a house behind the pie wagon where she rented out rooms. There was a man named Jimmy Clifton that would be there when I came in. He was a security guard for Advance Security. He was ten years older than I was but he was a fun guy. He was a flash from the past looking guy. He had strawberry red hair and it was all combed toward the top of his head and then a part that is combed toward the front and at the tip he had a curl like the greasers of the fifties. He wore cowboy shirts with the sleeves cut off up to the shoulder. He wore cowboy boots and khaki pants. I meet him in late 1969. We became good friends. He was twenty-eight and I was seventeen but that didn't keep me from becoming his friend. Like I said before I always hung with older people than I was. I was still hanging with Nancy at that time. We ( she and I ) would go to his job and sit and talk. He worked at a factory in down town Nashville as a guard. He is gonna come up later in my story . . .



Dave LaSelle Hell's Angel

 It was this year that a man name Dave Laselle came to town. He was living in a trailer behind J.B.Cooks next door to us. He wondered in one night. He was very well built and not to bad looking. He proclaimed that he was a Hell's Angel. He did have the colors ( you know the vest that they wore ) with all the patches and lettering on back, it said HELL'S ANGEL'S. We just assumed he was. He was a cool guy, and of course momma took to him right away. He drank hard and rode the bike hard. He became family like so many others. Old man Duff didn't like him and I am sure that it was because he was jealous of him. Momma even put him to work. Momma always would trust you till you proved her wrong. Duff told momma, don't say I didn't tell you when he steals from you. He had family that we didn't find out about untill one day he came in and told momma he needed her help. His wife and he came to Nashville because she was a singer like lots of other people. They had no luck and he just kinda left her to fin for herself and three kids. He told momma that his wife(remember we didn't know about the family) had tried to kill herself. Momma called Duff and he resisted to help and it had not been momma he would not have helped him . . .



Me amd Old Man Duff

The wife ended up killing herself and that left Dave with three little kids to take care of. Duff, one night told momma to go get the kids and he would see that they were in a good home. Momma and I went to the house on Blair Ave. and got the kids. Dave was upset but knew that was the best thing to do for the kids. While Duff was checking Dave's record, he found a warrant for stealing a motorcycle. Come to find out, he had stolen the colors and two cycles from a man in Milwaukee. Duff placed him under arrest, but momma told him to not worry she'd get him out. That she did. She pulled some strings and didn't have to post a bond and good thing because he fled. Before he left, he was staying with us on Robertson Rd. He and I went to the house and were sitting in the kitchen and in come daddy, he was pissed. One of our cop buddies Morrison, said to daddy, "if I was you, I would not have my daughter alone with him." So that was the only time daddy tried to control me and what I was doing. I only saw him two time get mad and both involved me. I will tell you the other time later in the book. Dave took me riding and he was a cool guy he was just a bad boy type, he knew that the things he did were wrong. He and momma were both misfits of sort and she understood him. In later years he kinda grew up and became responsible. He looked up his kids and he reunited with them. He was one that would just show up at different times in our life. He was one that sent me money to help with mommas funereal when she pasted. He was family because mommy just took in all the misfits that were thrown away by the rest if the world . . .


That all happened early March 1970. I was on a short leach because of Dave. Daddy started trying to tell me what to do. Well he found out that he waited way to long to become a daddy. I went on and did whatever I wanted to do. Still hanging around with the misfits that I told you momma adopted. I became a misfit myself. All I did now was drink and party. I had wrecked the other VW that they bought me. I hit a tree drunk and speeding on River Rd. So what does momma do, she buys me a 69-Mustang convertible. It had 78 miles on it boy, what a car, I wish I had it now. Marsha and I were still friends. Her and her brother and I would ride around and see what we could get into. One day we were riding in Bel Meade. We decided we were gonna drive through a road that had water washing over it. We, well I, got an ideal that we would get up speed and then hit it fast and it was so much fun. The water came over the hood of the car and into the back seat. Guess who was in back seat, yes your right Mark. He was drenched and Marsha and I didn't get a drop on us . . .

There was a teen club Tiger - A - Go - Go, opened up. They would have local bands and teens came and paid $5.00's and got in to dance. The man who opened it was a local car lot owner, and his name was Homer Scott. There was a band called the BLUE LIGHTS. They were off duty policemen and they were so much fun. I did not like going there, cause I was so use to hanging with older people that I saw it as boring because you could not drink. By this time I was drinking every day. I would go when Marsha wanted to go to be nice to her. She was the only person my own age that I liked . . .

Her mom was a good lady and she always made me feel at home when I would go over there. One night I got drunk and I didn't want to wreck my new ride, so I went to Marsha's house and parked in the drive way. I didn't want to wake them up cause it was like two a.m. in the morning. Mr. Toombs went to work early in the morning. When he came out to go to work, there I was asleep in my car with the doors locked. He went back inside and told Mrs. Toombs, She came out and banged on my window. I was still a little drunk and the other half was hung over. She (now picture this) told me open that door girl. I did and I wished I hadn't. She grabbed me by the collar then drug me inside her house and started a lecture that lasted an hour. She told me that if she ever caught me in the drive way again that she would give me a whipping! I believe she would have. She also told me that I could come to her house anytime day or night but that I was to come inside NOT JUST PARK IN THE DRIVE WAY AGAIN! I never did that again. She was kinda like my mom she would take kids in and love them just as if they were her own. That is how I felt when I was there, like the way people really do live not how I lived . . .



Old Man Duff & Joe His Partner

I would have fun going down to Nina's Pie Wagon and flirt with Jimmy and Larry. Not too much later I wrecked the Mustang. Yes another one and yes I was drunk. Jimmy was staying at our house because they were painting his room. He was at home when Duff came to the house to tell momma and daddy that I had wrecked. It pissed him off when daddy asks how bad was the car and not how is Debbie. So he became my knight in shining armor. By this time Duff had been promoted to a detective. He was so happy because he had been a cop for thirty years and he was a sixth grade drop out. Back then you could just be hired if you knew someone and that's what he did. He was the best police man that I ever knew. He knew how to take a con artist and get them to help him solve crimes. He had his snitches and knew how to treat them. That was when a cop could be a cop and not have to go by so many rules. The cons respected him and also the public . . .


One of the things that got me through my teenage years WAS that I was friends with most all the police in West Nashville. I mean almost family. We saw one every day, either they would come in and eat or bring their family in to eat or well just come in to check on us. I was considered a sister to all that came in. I am glad because if not I might have been in big trouble. here are a few stories about things I did that were funny and stupid too. One day I saw Bill McCurdy and I shot past him in my new Mustang ( which he had not seen yet and didn't know it was me ) and he took chase. I was going out of town on Charolette Ave. There was a place near Annex Ave that was called the Dairy Dip there was a path behind it where people would walk back up to Cadien Hollow. I knew about the path so I dipped into the dairy dip and took the path but the car that McCurdy was in could not go down it because it sat too low. So I beat him and he was so pissed at me when he found out it was me. I started picking at him the next time I saw him. I ask him, "I heard some Mustang out ran you the other day." He ask me, " how'd you know?" It was me!!! He grabbed me and started whipping my but ( not really just playing ) and said, " If I ever catch you doing anything like that again I am gonna put you in jail." Yea right was my reponce back to him. Needless to say I was a hand full and was always looking to pull one over on my buddies in metro . . .

Next Chapter is a few things about the Nashville Metro Policemen . . .

Chapter Fifthteen - The Police of West Nashville



Opie Sory My Buddy

Lots of my friends were members of the Metropolitan Police Department and I had a chance to see them at their best and they’re worse. They are just like me and you but they ware a uniform and are held in a higher respect than the general population. I also learned that they are human and have all the fears and dreams and life problems just like you and I do. They have marriage, health, family, money problems as well as in a dangerous profession. Most has a second job because the amount they made as a policeman wasn't enough. I was a manager of a grocery department later on in my life and I made more money on my job as they made as a policeman. They see death and violence every day as they work. You may say, "well they knew that when they signed up as policemen." Not true, most start being a policeman because they though they could make a difference in peoples life's and most try hard to keep that thought in their heads to carry on the hope that system does work. Some policemen do make a difference but sometimes they think they don't and lose the feeling of purpose and satisfaction of being a part of a system that didn't seem to work for them . . .

Chester Duffield was a grand man and he was respected by many and loved by most,  including myself. He was even tempered and knew how to make a difference in peoples life's. Many times he would go and give food and clothes to people he would meet as a policeman. That side of Duff was known by a few and then only because he was caught in the act of kindness or would ask for assistance from someone to do such acts. My momma and daddy and I helped him a few times to be a good Samaritan. Most of the people I speak about in this book are dead. Duff is one of them and he is greatly missed by many and also a system that needs good men not just policemen . . .



Duffield On Left
Frank Hancock
On Right 
In Kitchen At Pepe's

There were other policemen who believed what they did was helping the community too. They look at being a policeman as a chance to make a difference in someones life. Frank Handcock was a nice gentle man but when he put the uniform on he went by the book, the book of good sense and justice. He would give chances but never let it happen twice with the same person. One of Duff's best friends, he was a sergeant in West Nashville Sector. I will never forget the funeral, it was the first policeman's funeral that I had been to, WOW. Every police car and motorcycles in metro were in the precision along some from other counties  came too whether they knew him or not. I am talking about a  two mile long line of cars. From that day on my impression of POLICEMEN was changed. The over whelming feeling off sorrow, was in my heart.  Frank the man, was a sweet kind person but when he put the uniform on, he was a greater man in my remembrance. He made an ever lasting memory in my life for I will never forget the MAN . . .

I have many policeman stories. I could write a whole book on just those who were my friends and a few more of ones I knew that I didn't like. There was one who I hated. He was a type that thought that he was better than the others. He was a sergeant and new to West Nashville. He took Franks old job. I cant remember his name but he was after some of the better police for anything that he could get on them. Jaco's was a haven for lots of policemen. They could be human and not be afraid that someone was watching them to get them in trouble. Back then the curfew for beer was midnight. When the eleven o'clock hour hit the night shift was over and we could except the place to get filled with off duty policemen. We would lock the door at midnight and let them stay and eat and drink after hours. It was kind of a after hours club just for them and a few of our regular customers. The police would before they came in take off their shirts down to the tee shirt and take their gun and utility belt off and put them in their trunks . . .



Badge Of Honor

One night the new sergeant came to the door and knocked. Someone made a mistake and opened it for him not knowing that he was after anyone he could get in trouble.  He stepped in and announced that he was reporting everyone that was in there and that JACO'S now was off limits to policemen and if anyone got caught there he would report them to the chief. Duff met him at the door, he never came through the door just stood at the door. Duff told him I have been friends with Jaco for many years and that he could just go ahead and tell on them that we ( the people in there ) had no intention of staying away from there that was because the chief was a good friend to Jaco's too. At that time Duff knew that he was totally out of line telling then not to come to Jaco's. Duff also told him that he would just say, if asked, that he knew that the sergeant was a frequent customer in Jaco's and also told him that he had known the chief for thirty years and that he would believe him before he would you . . .



I want to say that today there are policemen in the news for drugs and stealing and well lets just say many offences and far and few between are the reports of  not the good things that the men in uniform do unless they are killed on duty. Back then the police were respected and all seem to know what their jobs were. Today the news of a policeman gone wrong is splatted all over the news and makes it hard for the rest of the members of the department. Their motto is To Serve and Protect.That should be held in the utmost respect because one bad apple can and will make the whole department not trusted. So my heart and prayers go out to the people behind the badges. They are not supported enough as far as I see . . .

It may look like I over look some things about police but if you have ever had a policeman as a friend you know exactly what I am talking about. They have a soul and a heart that most people don't have and because of that, it is one  profession that has a high rate of suicide. They deal with all the heartache and pain they see on a daily bases, each one differently. So if you see a policeman wave hello at them or buy them a cup of coffee or even a donut, no all kidding aside they do a job that is unrewarding at times and they could stand a few hand shaking just for doing the job . . .

  PEOPLE who  Protect and Serve . . .