ANCIENT MEMORIES

 

A daily habit of mine is watching the evening local and national news.  I find it interesting that it seems that most of my friends pay no attention to the news, or, maybe their sources are different, but in any case, that’s my habit and I’m glad it is.  This past week there was a local news story that swept me back to many, many, many ancient memories.

The local news was announcing the passing of a local icon by the name of Eddie Sheppard.   Wow…. did a waterfall of memories come welling up and not for obvious reasons.  I didn’t actually know Ed, we weren’t friends, I have no memory of ever actually talking to him, but he was a well-established presence on Mt. Adams.

Between 1968 – 1973, when I lived and worked on Mt. Adams, it was the Height-Ashbury of Cincinnati during the Hippy Era.  It was the coolest place in all of Cincinnati at that time.  There were 5 bars within a 3-block area of each other: Mahogany Hall, Crowley’s Pub, Dilly’s Pub, another, whose name I cannot remember, and The Blind Lemon, Ed owned The Blind Lemon.  These were the bars that were the only places to be on Wednesday and Friday nights.  Other nights were good too…. but they weren’t Wednesday and Friday!!!

My first time on Mt. Adams was shortly after I had moved to Cincinnati.  I had landed a job at Ohio National Life Insurance Co. and some of the girls I worked with invited me to go out with them on Wednesday night to the ‘Hill’.  I had heard of the place but had no idea what I was in for.  Keep in mind, I was still a very naive, dumb kid.  The Hill was a labyrinth of tiny streets, put together like a jigsaw puzzle.  I drove myself up, met up with the girls, joined them in their car while they drank a little and then pulled a bag of weed from under the dash…. before we ever left the car!!!  I was definitely in over my head.

By the end of the evening, I had no idea where my car was parked, had gotten separated from my group, found my car, found one of the girls who was so drunk/stoned she almost couldn’t walk.  She begged me for a ride home.  I obliged.  As I pulled into her driveway she grabbed her purse, pulled it open and puked into it…. thank God it was a big purse!!!  Then I had to find my way home.

Eventually it became a crazy time for me.  I was working 3 jobs and going to school 2 nights a week.  When the weekends came, I tended to collapse on Saturday and sleep all day Sunday.  But I was having the time of my life.  Waiting tables at Dilly’s was so much fun.  It was a 2-level bar.  First floor was a sit-down bar with a small stage where I first heard Pure Prairie League play.  On Wednesday and Fridays it was standing room only.  I worked that floor on Wednesday and Fridays.  Basement was a stand-up bar with pin ball machines.   I came close to beating Jimmy Smith one night, he was our own Pin Ball Wizard.  Any night I wasn’t working or at school I tended to hang out either at Mahogany Hall or The Blind Lemon…where it wasn’t unusual to see a local celebrity, like Johnny Bench hanging out.   

The bar workers had an informal club where someone would organize events after the bars closed (2:30 am) and we would head to Northern Kentucky to go ice skating or to a dirt bike race course to party until the sun came up.  Don’t even ask how I managed to get to my 9-5 job….I have no idea. 

I moved to Alaska in 1973 and by the time I returned to Cincinnati in 1976 times had changed.  The Hill was no longer THE place to be.  It was much quieter, bars had come and gone, but the Blind Lemon was still there….and is still there.  Pete and I were up there a while back and Walter Brown was still the bar manager, has been for 50 years. 

There is so much more to the story, but you get the picture. 

All I can say to Eddie, is thanks for resurrecting the memories.