 |
| The 70's were a radical time at many colleges, but at Nac it was easy living. Our rent was $60.00 a month, that worked out to about twenty bucks a month, and that fell to about twelve dollars during the summer when our population swelled to five or six. You see Loggy had this talent for bringing home wanderers and wayfarers. One of these "friends of Loggy" was Robbie the pool sharking dwarf. He said he knew Ray Sharpe and was at the recording session that produced the classic, "Linda Lu". So, he was always singing, " They call my baby fatty but her real name, real name, real name is Linda Loooo... Drove us whacky! He stayed for a few days until he got drunk one night shooting pool and backed his car into a light pole. 'Hope the inmates at the county jail liked Linda Looo... I'll bet Robbie really got the blues, too! During the summer we worked the swing shift at the lawn chair factory. We all signed on to make aluminum chairs for Wal Mart. We went to work around 3 p.m. and got off at midnight. During lunch break we would run down to the beer store and load up on our favorite brew, Busch quarts. They costs 25 cents each or three dollars a case. Everyone started as a webbing screwer. We were issued an air powered screw driver and told to screw as many straps as you could to the chair's metal frame. About thirty two screws per chair and about twelve chairs an hour. Worked out to about 3,078 screws a night. After about four days your hand became permanenly bent to the shape of the screw driver. This wasn't all bad though because the driver was about the same size as the neck of a cool Busch quart, coool. After about three weeks, if you didn't screw up and had a good work ethic, meaning you actually came to work and stayed until the shift ended, you were promoted to a new job. You didn't get a raise, just a new job. My new job was working a 3 ton press - bending and cutting chair frames. The foreman for this area made a big impression on me. You see he too had worked this baby and was quick to point out to you to never reach inside the press since this baby can take your hand clean off. He made his point while pointing to the safety switch with his left hand which had two fingers missing. What we didn't know was this . . . even though we made chairs for the world's biggest retailer, who probably sold ten trillion lawn chairs every year, but by mid July we had made all the chairs that Sam Walton needed and everybody was laid off. This gave us the blues, too, but hey - more time for music and bar-b-que'd yard bird (chicken). Weekends were always spent listening to music and barbequing in the "Pit". The "Pit" was a freebie we got when we purchased a second hand stove to use in he house. The lady that sold it to us knocked off five bucks if we would haul away her broken ice box. Little did she now that she was giving us the ultimate smoke pit. The box had "premium all metal construction," so we cut some holes in the top, built a fire in the bottom, and threw several Sander's slaves (chickens) on the stacked racks. It made great smoked holy bird (chicken). What we didn't realize was this, after several "smoke sessions" the insulation caught fire between the outer liner and the metal inner liner. We can attest that this box was asbestos free because it burned and smoked for four days before it burned itself out. After that we cleaned it up, tilted it over and it became our combination patio couch and beer cooler. More as time permits. |
 |
| The Green Door was a rather modest dwelling when we moved in. It didn't take us long to decide it need to be remoded. So, we scavened Nacogdoches and the surrounging areas in Jimmy's VW to gather the necessary matrials and supplies. After moving the furniture out to the front yard (which was actually cooler than the unairconditioned inside) we soon completed the living room. It featured wall to wall (and up one wall) shag carpet and sported a 4 foot by 4 foot Cheech Wizard mural painted directly on the wall. Being the refined persons that we were, we promptly framed the art work and paneled the rest of the wall. This became our entertainment space . The name for our home came from the color we painted the bathroom door, thus after receiving a new coat of bright green paint, Green Door was born. |
| "De OLE FOLKS AT HOME PAGE . . ." DEDICATED TO BUNK and MARIE and their OLE BLUE CAT, (Or "How I learned to stop worrying & love the Blues.") |
| The Green Door Cafe was located in Nacogdoches,Texas on Hwy. 7 at the edge of town. The house was between Oklahoma Auto Parts, home of the watch donkey, and Bumkie and Marie's House. They raised goats and cats. Bunk spent endless hours relating stories of his ole blue cat and its unfortunate demise. During the mid 70's this was my home. I was a student at SFA University and shared this small five room home with Loggy ,Jimmy, and a host of characyers who would come and go. If you look closely you can still see Jimmy's VW parked around back. He started parking it there after I knocked a hole in the windshield while trying to toss an empty Busch quart bottle across the highway and I missed the ground and hit his car. Gee, I didn't realize VW's had such expensive windshields. Buying a new windshield really gives you the blues. |
| This Page Sponsored by Jimmy's Midnite Remodeling |