{"id":122,"date":"2010-02-17T01:29:07","date_gmt":"2010-02-17T01:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houseofcardsblog.wordpress.com\/?p=122"},"modified":"2010-02-17T01:29:07","modified_gmt":"2010-02-17T01:29:07","slug":"ghosts-of-wire-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shufflecloud.com\/ltt\/2010\/02\/17\/ghosts-of-wire-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghosts of Wire Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was in school at Auburn University in the early 90s, Wire Road was known primarily for\u00a0the high tally of DUI arrests occuring along its corridor. It made sense, I suppose. New Fraternity Row lies just off its curves and the campus itself within a few hundred yards. Most avoided it altogether in those days.<\/p>\n

If you chose to risk its winding path away from campus, you eventually reached a part of the Auburn area that a majority of students never saw. To anyone whose primary focus was supposed to be fixed on academics, the clubs on the outskirts of town spelled nothing but trouble. They were locally driven and very blue collar. They existed on a different plane than the soft, trendy bars that catered to the youthful population. They trudged on night after night trading\u00a0large crowds and\u00a0certain profits for specific after hours clientele at home with aimless drifting in western ghost town ambiance. Names like Champs, the Struttin\u2019 Duck, Pourhouse, and Fat Daddy\u2019s would sully an otherwise refined conversation in mixed company. Patrons had to be able to thrive in dark, smoke-filled rooms where loud live music and bar fights were commonplace. No one was wearing their sorority letters without having them\u00a0strung up with\u00a0their\u00a0bra on the\u00a0rack of a deer\u00a0head, likely mounted\u00a0after a violent death at the hands of someone who now shoots pool in its shadow.<\/p>\n

A lot of underappreciated musical talents strolled through those doors. Adam Hood, Tony Brook, and Justin Johnson still appear from time to time, never completely severing ties with Wire Road. The band Alabama Union was formed some years ago in a fateful gelling of local talent including Hood, Brook and occasionally Johnson. You can have a beer today with Joe Bagley or Chris Posey on any number of nights along Wire.\u00a0They were also on and off members of the Union. The band could have easily been called \u201cThe Wire Road Boys\u201d.<\/p>\n

Champs, The Struttin’ Duck, and Pourhouse are all gone, but Fat Daddy\u2019s currently carries the late night torch and I\u2019m there three times a week even today. After renewing my bartender lifestyle, and with the late night cash counting procedure I described in\u00a0the \u201cToday\u2019s Schedule\u201d entry changing over the years, I felt obliged to dust off my late night card and get it punched once again. And until I can\u2019t do it anymore,\u00a0I\u2019ll see to it that the Wire Road\u00a0flame never burns out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sometimes when you bring the late night Wire Road thunder, you get lost in the storm.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was in school at Auburn University in the early 90s, Wire Road was known primarily for\u00a0the high tally of DUI arrests occuring along its corridor. It made sense, I suppose. New Fraternity Row lies just off its curves…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n