GOING SOUTH

Tomorrow we fly to Florida. We're looking forward to a great week. We fly down with our son and granddaughter, Lucy, which should be great fun.


Talking about going South brought back a memory of my youth. When I was a teenager, one of the local bars that I couldn't wait to get into was called Gribbles Cafe. It was owned by a guy named Charley Gribble. The Gribbles family lived in our neighborhood and went to our church. Well, one day, Charley was gone. All my parents would tell me was, Charley evidently 'went South'. Somehow I knew that he didn't go to Florida. It turns out that 'went South' was their euphemism for 'left his wife for another woman.' Yeah, he sold the bar and left town. These days, 'went South' generally refers to anything that goes bad. I don't think the bar was in bad financial shape. Anyway, the new owners changed the name to Quatmann Cafe in the early 1960's but some of the old timers still refer to it as Gribbles.

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