Notes from Dr. Sam

Good Day,

I hope this note finds you well.

As many of you know, my first book was We All Hear Voices. The story centers on a character named Jack who has the gift of synesthesia—he tastes shapes and sees sounds. This mixing of the senses is a well-recognized but uncommon phenomenon. Jack is the short order cook in Moon’s bar-and-grill in Gum Ridge, Arkansas. 

He spends his free time at the stock-car track across the street from the café where the sounds and brightly colored cars help to stimulate him to create wonderful banquet meals back at the café. Soon after his arrival at the café, it becomes the best little eatery in the Delta. 

As with most fiction, many of the places, people and events are shadows with strong similarities from the writer’s life.  The town of Gum Ridge has a striking resemblance to the town of Augusta, Arkansas where I was born and raised. Moon’s Bar and Grill sits about where East End Café sat when I was a child. 

The town of Augusta had a number of Mom-and-Pop establishments. Along with the East End Café, Fronabargers was just off the main street in downtown Augusta and held sway for several decades. Both of these places were sit-down restaurants with rules about being quiet and not being rowdy.

Growing up in the late 1950s and early 1960s, we were always looking for a place to light, a hang out that didn’t have many rules. Two places stand out in my mind.

Just north of town, on Highway 64, was a small diner called the Pie Shoppe.  The roadside diner had its origin in the early 20th century. The earliest of these type diners had begun as converted rail dining cars. Often, they were called “lunch cars” and continued to resemble the rail car diner. 

The design was simple and easy to construct. Most of them were inexpensive, built in factories and assembled on site. As you might guess, the Pie Shoppe of Augusta was known for pies and its mile-high meringue. (Not unlike the pies at Ed and Kays in Benton) 

Very few places in Augusta were more than three or four blocks away; that was no need to drive a car or even have a friend with a car. In the late 1950s, I can remember (8th or 9th grade) in the early evening we would make our way to the parking lot in front of the Pie Shoppe and fraternize with the older kids. If we had money, we would go into the café and order a piece of pie.    

The other establishment that captured our attention was the Dairy Skipper in downtown Augusta. Much like the chain Dairy Queens but locally established and owned.  Their milkshakes, burgers and chilidogs were high on my list of desirable treats.

Many of the sense memories of my childhood that still linger with me today are from the Dairy Skipper and the Pie Shoppe in Augusta, Arkansas.  

I hope you have similar memories.

Have a good journey,

Sam

 Dr. Sam Taggart is a retired doctor/writer/marathon runner who practiced in Benton for 45 years. He recently released For Every Family, A Family Doctor: a history of the modern Family Medicine Movement in Arkansas. His other books include Country Doctors of Arkansas, The Public’s Health, With a Heavy Heart and We All Hear Voices.