Reds

Two friends of mine a while back bought a liquor licenses and a place called Reed’s that had been a neighborhood bar for years. They decided to name it Red’s the reason for the name change is lost since they are both dead now.
It became the “it” place to go. It was on one of the most traveled streets in the black part of town and right at an interstate exit. If anyone came to town and was looking for someone they would go to Red’s or someone there would know where they were.
I was a good friend of the owners and the manager Jack and knew all the barmaids: Loretta, Wanda, Anna, Lilly, Paulette, Jeannie, Dee, Millie, Nancy, Rene’ and Brenda.
Jack was a real character, a guy with a heart of gold, who would run a tab for the winos and pour a free drink for the bar for any reason what so ever just so he could knock back a “shooter”. He was a great cook and would fix huge pots of chili, white beans, chitlins, chicken wings, beef stew or neck bones on Saturdays and everyone would be eating drinking and getting down. Marvin Gaye’s “ What’s goin on “ or Al Greene’s “Lets stay together” would be blastin and before there was an “electric slide” or “stepping” we would be forming a line dance of our own and dancing the night away. I closed the place a thousand times. It was my nostrum
Red’s had a character of it’s own and anyone from out of town I took there always said they wished there was a Red’s in there town. I’ve been around and in many bars and joints but Red’s was something else.
The characters that came thru Red’s would have been a perfect cast for Damon Runyon story. Like “Capt Bob” who was a stone wino who could recite any dirty poem or story for a bottle of “hooker” ( Wild Irish Rose) or “Junior” who passed out and fell in the middle of the street out front. And it was summer and the doors were all open and the crowd said Doc “ give Junior mouth to mouth” and I replied “NOT ME, I’ll direct traffic around him until the paramedic come”. Jimmy the owner abhorred cursing and every other word was usually MF this and MF that and when he wasn’t around we would play card or shoot dice in the back room.
One thing Jimmy did not tolerate was disrespect to women and that’s what let to his untimely violent death. Jack had a way with people, even drunks and could get them out the door before anything happened. One night before Jack came to work a guy insulted a woman and Jimmy grabbed him to put him out and the guy pulled his gun and shot Jimmy point blank. He died before the medic arrived. After the funeral his cortège drove by Red’s and the customers stood on the front porch and held their glasses high in a last salute to him. Red’s was never the same after that.