April 2015

April 10, 2015

‘I’m Having a Heart Attack!’

I’m pretty sure the American Ice Cream Drive-In on the left as you come into Jackson was once a Dairy Queen. It wasn’t one of my haunts. (I was more a Wib’s guy.)

You know how certain family stories grow up to be family legends over the years. I wasn’t along the night that Dad and the rest of the family stopped in for what must have been a new product. I don’t know the official name of the frozen beverage they were served. Today it would be known at 7-11 as a Slurpee and other places as a Slushee.

Much like people didn’t really know how to eat pizza at first and ended up with burned mouths, Dad apparently didn’t know how to drink his frozen concoction. It was so cooling, so refreshing, so good-tasting, that he must have sucked it down in big gulps.

Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia strikes

When the resulting brain freeze hit him, he told the family that he thought was having a heart attack. Fortunately, the condition didn’t last long and all he suffered was embarrassment.

Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, by the way, is the scientific name for “ice cream headache,” a term that has been in use since at least January 31, 1937. Much to my surprise, the first published reference to “brain freeze” was on May 27, 1991. I could have sworn I heard the phrase used long before that.

April 9, 2015

Dog and Suds

I get lots of requests for info and photos of Wimpy’s, Pfister’s, A&W Root Beer and, less frequently, Dog and Suds. The first three are long gone, but I had a nagging suspicion that the green building at 605 North Kingshighway, just south of the entrance to Arena Park, might be the latter.

While Mother and I were rambling about, I said, “I’m going to pull in, shoot first, then ask questions later.” And, I did.

Walking in the door, I told a guy that his hair didn’t look gray enough to know the answer on his own, but that he might have heard from someone else if this building had once been the Dog and Suds. He confirmed it had been. (By the way, The Missourian spelled it as Dog and Suds, not “Dog ‘n’ Suds,” the way I thought of it.

Lots of different things

That building had been used for lots of different things.

April 29, 1958 – Preston Sign Co. to erect and install an electric noncombustible advertising sign at 605 North Kingshighway. Size, 7 feet by 8 feet and declared cost, $700.
January 17, 1964 – Advertisement: Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Harrington have purchased and taken over the management of The Gas Lite Drive-in. We will feature Pit Barbecue and Frog Legs, and serve the choicest of foods. 10:00 A.M. to Midnight; 10 A.M. to 2:00 A,M. (on weekends).
October 4, 1969 – D. and D. Plumbers have leased and moved into a building at 605 North Kingshighway. The firm [is] owned by David Franklin… The new location was leased from Barney Zimmerman, and until recently was used to house a restaurant.
1979 City Directory – The Flower Shoppe
April 8, 2015 – Car Title Loans

April 8, 2015

Spring Flowers Popping Out

The morning started with the weather alert radio blaring out a severe thunderstorm watch for the Cape area. The temps climbed to the high 70s and the air felt wet and sticky, but we didn’t get much rain here. In the late afternoon, we experienced some sharp lightning and window-rattling thunder to the north of us, but that was about all.

A couple mornings ago, I noticed one bright tulip in the planter next to Mother’s front door. This afternoon, I spotted half a dozen. There was some drizzle dripping down my neck, so I didn’t spend much time admiring the flowers.

Purple things

I’ve confessed before that my plant knowledge is embarrassingly meager. In fact, you could probably boil it down to Poison Ivy and Not Poison Ivy.

These purple flowers fall into the Not Poison Ivy family.

You can click on the photos to make them larger.

April 7, 2015

Deer Me, Nothing Changes

I knew it was deer hunting season in Ohio when I stayed at the Burr Oak Lodge last November. Still, it’s a bit unusual to see Bambi times two hanging from a beam on the way to your room.

Just like in 1968

Maybe I shouldn’t have been too surprised. People in Ohio like their deer meat, I discovered, when I cruised Nelsonville late at night on December 5, 1968. This deer was hanging on a porch not too far from the main drag.

Hauling venison across state lines

Wife Lila told me to go by her Brother John’s house in Jackson to pick up some venison to carry back to Florida. She had it all figured out: He said it’ll be frozen and should make it to Ohio where you can put it in a fridge in your room. When you saddle up to head home, pack it in dry ice, she ordered.

All of that went according to plan until I started to leave Athens. There was no problem getting the dry ice at a Kroger store (minimum quantity was way more than I needed), but the cooler was too tightly packed with deer meat to get any dry ice in it. Either I was going to have to buy a bigger cooler or something was going to have to give.

“Boy, what are you doing?”

An old man in a car next to me watched my maneuverings until he couldn’t stand it any more, “Boy, just what are you doing?”

Showing uncharacteristic good sense, I didn’t say something like “Dropping my wife off along the road. This is the last of her.”

I explained that I was trying to stuff 10 pounds in a five-pound sack.

“I love venison,” he said, wistfully, “and I can’t think of the last time I had some.”

“Today is your lucky day, then,” I said as I handed him a wrapped package of Missouri deer meat. “I’d rather give it to you than throw it away to make room for the dry ice.”