Sunday Lunch at the Century House Tavern in Woodstock

We sat on a glass-in side porch

The view:

Dining In Woodstock, Georgia

On the spur of the moment we decided to dine in Woodstock, Georgia. We were close by anyway and the rain was pouring down.

I remember back in the late 50s the only restaurant that I knew in Woodstock was the Dixie Inn, located near the corner of Canton Highway and Hwy 92. One time about 1959 I choked on a red snapper bone at the Dixie Inn and collapsed to the floor trying to breath. As you may know, I lived.

That was before the Heimlich maneuver. I don’t know what I did but suddenly I was breathing again. The bone must have taken on a life of its own and wiggled itself out.

Now, Woodstock has many restaurants to choose from. Just outside of town near where the Dixie Inn used to be is Bub-a-Q’s BBQ and across the street from where the Dixie Inn is Happy China Restaurant. Up in the center of town by the railroad tracks there are: Canyon Hamburgers that serve sweet potato french fries, it reminded me of Johnny Rockets; Pure Authentic Mexican Restaurant; a fine dining establishment in an old Victorian house that was named with the year it was made, like the 1848 house in Marietta, but this house was much later, something like the 1905 House, but now it is named something else; a place apparently just named HOT DOGS; and the Right Wing Tavern, which is in the old train Depot.

Until last night we have been to all but the Pure Authentic Mexican Restaurant and the Right Wing Tavern. Tonight we went to the Pure Restaurant.

The only authentic Mexican thing in Pure Authentic Mexican Restaurant is the bus boy. All other people are just fun loving yuppies that I think like loud music.

The food was good. As a gimmick the menu was done in Spanish. You had to study each item listed to see if you could find the word “taco” or “burrito” buried in description someplace. And of course, the word “polo” was used a lot when telling about their different chicken dishes….. so, I think the menu might be authentic too!

The salsa for the chips was good and spicy and the food was delivered quicker than we expected it. The food was hot and good. The pork was very tender and juicy.

When I went to the restroom I noticed a PURE sign. I said the name of the restaurant was PURE didn’t I? The PURE sign looked very much like the PURE gas station signs years ago. Later we looked PURE Authentic Mexican Restaurants up on google and discovered there are several Pure Authentic Mexican Restuarants all around Metro Atlanta. And they all look like Pure Service Stations. Then it dawned on us…the one we dined at looked like PURE Service Stations with open bays to dine in. I don’t know what that has to do with Mexican – but..

What do you want, a hat dance?

Give Us Your Tired, Your Hungry, Your….

We had another Good Old Boy Home-Boy, OM meeting tonight. It is enjoyable just to sit around and shoot the breeze about people and local places we mostly know.

Somebody new to the meeting asked, “how come on Tuesday evenings”?

Somebody else said, “At our age, it means we made it to another Tuesday.”

We discussed local politics in detail. For instance we discussed why Mayor-potential "Thunder" Tumlin, has the nickname "Thunder".

We also had a detail discussion about art. You either like tattoos or you don't was our conclusion.

And the subject of Homer was brought up. And the subject was quickly changed to something else.

Chef Charles Monty Calhoun had treated us with hotdogs, buns, chili, and a special blend of baked beans with onions and peppers. Monty is constantly working to perfect his recipes. One of the key ingredients is Big Arn’s BBQ Sauce – it makes everything better.

Not only is Monty an excellent cook he gives himself a different challenge every week, like lugging in a barbecue grill... not just a Webber, but something more gadgetry... or making icecream, or pizza.

One man saw us at a distance and became curious and walked over to see what the occasion was. We didn’t know him and he didn’t know us. Everybody shook his hand and he had a hotdog with us and talked about Auburn. I think the stranger was asked to put his name in the official roll book.

I think that has happened once or twice before.

Come one, come all! Everybody is welcome!

Dining with the Retirees

Last night we went to a dinner that one of Anna’s retired ex-co-workers gave. She is a widow.

Besides inviting us she also invited another retired co-worker and her husband, and another retired co-worker who is also a widow.

There were five of us. Three of them were about 87 years old and the hostess and I are both 66. Anna is younger by several years. Roughly figuring in my head, I think the average age of the dinner party was 75.

The invitation was for 6:00pm. We arrived at about 5:40. The others had already arrived. One thing, when partying with the elderly crowd you don’t have to worry about anyone being fashionably late.

When we first sat down to dine our light conversation was mostly about aches, pains, ailments, and medicine.

Eventually we got around discussing travel and the conversation turned interesting. The couple that is each about 87 has traveled quiet a bit. They lit up when they talked of the time they spent six weeks touring Australia about a year after they retired, and the cruises they have been on… and all the states they have visited…. They were enthusiastic about telling about their travels and acknowledged that their touring days are over…. They are just too old and sore to travel much anymore.

Then the hostess pulled out an in-house telephone book of the organization they worked for that she took with her when she retired – and they started going through the book looking at names they haven’t thought of in years and you could tell they were excited – they would pull a name out of the book and maybe one of them would remember whatever happened to him or her… I could sense their blood pressing rising as the organization’s phone book reminded them of people they haven’t thought of lately.

It was fun to watch their enthusiasm as they relived their own work days.