Bud #1: Welcome to Bud’s Geauga Corners

It had been a long time since I was out to Bud’s. It’s an old roadhouse out in the far eastern part of the county. Bud’s is a vanishing breed of white clapboard buildings that you see at the corner of country crossroads. Bud bought the place after he married Ella.  Together they fixed the place up. People said they had the best burgers in the county. Bud, whose real name is Brimley Underwood Draper (hence Bud) managed the bar and Ella managed the kitchen. Together they had a successful business for 25 years. Then Ella was diagnosed with cancer. A year later she was gone.  The business went slowly downhill. The kitchen closed. Now people just came in for a cold beer. But Bud’s is still someplace special. It’s a place of honest people and forthright conversation. Folks come in for talk-plain talk.

I felt the need to get some straight up conversation and a cold beer.

When I walked in, Bud was engrossed in a big leather-bound law book of Ohio laws.  It took a few seconds for him to look up at me.  He was surprised. “Dave, where have you been hiding?”

Bud drew me a glass of beer. I looked over behind the bar and there was a stack of more leather-bound volumes just like the one Bud had been reading.

When I asked about the book, he said a lawyer friend had retired, closed up shop and was giving everything away. So, Bud took the books.

Down the bar were the regulars. Harold was there. Harold didn’t drink much but, he loved to talk and he could nurse a beer for 2 hours, unless you offered to buy him another.  Next was Larry a fraternal twin. His brother Gary rarely came in to Bud’s. Gary’s business, Gary’s Gravel kept him busy hauling with his dump truck.

In the back corner booth sat Randy amid a pile of newspapers and a laptop. Randy was a Vietnam vet who came home with the war raging inside his head.  It had taken years to get himself straight, but now he was solid in recovery. He worked part time for Bud and the two were fast friends. Until you understand how that happened, a bar will seem like an odd place for somebody in recovery. But that’s a story for another time.

What’s important to know about Randy is that as a Vietnam vet he was an incredible and decorated warrior. But Randy began to have big problems adjusting after coming home and alcohol had gotten him into serious trouble. It finally landed him in front of a military discipline court. The military lawyers were referred to as “JAGs”, short for Judge Advocate General.

This was a court for soldiers who had serious infractions. Randy had hated JAG officers. He felt they disrespected him, offered no help, and were the ones who had eventually gave him a general discharge from the military.  Now after 20 years of recovery the anger he felt for JAG’s was under control. But he still referred to them as “#$@^% pompous desk jockeys who had never been to ‘Nam.”

Randy spent late afternoons sitting in the back booth drinking diet cola and reading one of the many papers he now subscribed to.

As I began chatting, Harold made a faux pas. He asked me how things were going with the park district and was that Judge still making trouble. That was the wrong thing to say when Randy was in the room. Randy knew that judge had been a JAG officer and he remembered how those other JAG’s had treated him. That judge had been a JAG officer and that was enough for Randy to begin a slow burn. Bud gave Harold a dirty look as he hustled out from behind the bar with a fresh diet cola and a slice of lemon.  He sat them down on Randy’s table, put his hand on Randy’s shoulder and quietly said “You know these diet colas always taste better with a slice of lemon.” Randy looked up at Bud. The anger drained away and he slowly smiled. You could see the bond between the two. The bit about the lemon was code between the two. It meant “You’ve got a friend in me.”

Randy looked up at Bud and said, “Yeah you’re right about the lemon.”

Bud walked back around the bar and gave Harold another dirty look.

After that the conversation went in other directions. Larry asked Bud if he could look up things in those law books. Bud said he probably could, but it would take a little while.  The conversation was wide and varied. I listened and never tired of hearing the unvarnished views of Bud’s patrons.

I finished my beer and said so long to everybody. Bud said “Hey Dave, don’t be such a stranger.” I said “don’t worry Bud I won’t be.  I’ll be back”

NEXT TIME: Twinkle Lights and a Food Drive

The opinions expressed are solely those of Dave Partington and of course Bud, Randy, Harold, Larry and the rest of the guys sitting at the bar at Bud’s. Bud’s Geauga Corners is a work of fiction. Bud’s Geauga Corners is paid for solely by Dave Partington.