Who would of Thought?

In the early 1980's did we ever think about owning a restaurant, let alone Fred's News or Libs as the locals called it. Everybody and their brother wanted to buy the place, but the brothers weren't selling or should I say the brothers weren't telling they were selling. Okay, okay let's start at the beginning. My husband was one of their cast of characters. He'd stop in every morning for a drink, something to eat and get a cigar. Oh yes, did I also mention the place sold tobacco, every kind even the papers to roll your own and the snacks to go with that great time!!! Anyway...Emil wanted someone to be a morning cook. Bill(husband)had just been told his job as plant manager at a nearby plastics firm was being relocated to Arizona. We thought about moving but obviously that changed, as did our lives. Bill became the morning cook. Cooking was all done out in front of the customers. His wit and sarcasm was an instant hit. Moving ahead two years, Bill was still the morning cook. Emil out of the clear blue sky asked,"you and Diane want to buy the place?" After picking up his jaw from the floor Bill asked why me, many people want this place? Emil's response was "do you or don't you want it?" "You two can handle this place, clean it up, give it a better reputation" (many thought it was a local hangout and parents wouldn't let their kids hangout in front with the "hoodlums!") The rest is history. At first people thought it was a joke. They asked "why them?" It too might have been a jeaslousy factor. Many had asked the brothers but they always laughed and said they weren't old enough to retire. Actually both older than dirt! The warning from the brothers to us was clear and concise, "don't change a thing!" Right, they didn't have a family or a mortgage on anything. They owned half the Town and were well connected, (love that term!) This place was just a write off for them or maybe a better term would be "it was helping the family business!"

Did we change anything? Hell yeah! Did we do it all at once? Oh yeah! Did we close while we did it? Not on your life, we had bills to pay, kids to raise and patrons that came for great food and to see what the next change was going to be. Many of those changes came on a daily basis, fast and furious. I truly believe people came and ate just to see if we were going to fail and of course for the GREAT FOOD and conversation!
At first some of the "Hoodlums" rebelled, but they too grew up and many became patrons eventually bringing in their own kids and telling the stories of Fred's News. New people moved into Town, the little shop grew and grew but never lost it charm. We greeted our cast of characters and welcomed the new ones into the fold everyday. We opened up our hearts,lives and truly became the first "reality show" ever. Sometimes, much to the dismay of our children, who said, "they felt like they were growing up in a fishbowl." As the years have passed and the kids are grown, stories abound about some of the things they did, which, if they truly did live in fishbowl, those antics got by half the Town!