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A GUEST AUTHOR’S Harvest Story THESE STORIES ARE ALWAYS INFORMATIVE AND USUALLY HAVE A BIT OF TONGUE AND CHEEK HUMOR.
IT IS ALWAYS FUN TO SHARE WITH OTHERS, DIFFERENT WAYS OF HARVESTING, THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS THAT WE HAVE FACED OUT THERE WHILE WE WERE HARVESTING.
REGGIE
A few weeks ago, Armin Pfaender gave me a "challenge:" to find something about the old illegals of Arbuckle. He especially wanted to know about Tex's and Tuffy's. And while I rarely get up to that city, strange things happened; my tenants in Yreka bailed and left the house a shambles, and I had to drive up there to inspect and make whatever small repairs I could over an all-too-short Labor Day weekend. And so, I found myself returning on Sunday evening through Arbuckle ....
Exited I-5 onto Fifth Street, the main street of that little town. Drove around a bit and then . . . I spotted it! Tex's Tavern, big as life!! 513 Fifth Street, Arbuckle CA 95912.
I got up the courage to walk in . . . there was nobody in the place except for a man who quickly walked into the kitchen, and a lady, eating supper at the bar. Obviously the barkeeper. I asked her, did they ever have a cardroom in the place, and she replied, somewhat hesitantly (probably figuring me for a cop), yes, once, but years ago. I explained my interest in casino chips and did she know what sort of chips were used there? She replied, they didn't use chips, they had wooden free-drink tokens. Her father left her one and she's not about to part with it. All the other tokens were discarded a long time back.
I asked if the bar was the same as Tuffy's and she said, no, Tuffy's was located a block up Fifth Street. At one time Arbuckle had 7 or 8 bars and "illegal things were done at some of them." The town was known as "Barbuckle" for all its alcohol consumption. I thanked her for the information and left, with the uneasy feeling that the man in the kitchen was spying on me - well, whoever heard of a woman alone in a bar talking with a total stranger.
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