| Aunt Eunice--The Legend: Part 3 | |
Eunice
Goes Into Business
After a few years Eunice decided to open her own
place, called the Butler Grill, across from the old Butler High School. “I
borrowed seventy-five dollars on my life insurance policy to open the restaurant
with," recalls Eunice. "I
don't think I was ever so scared in my life as I was at the thought of losing
that money. "I opened at 5 o'clock in the morning and stayed open until
about 9 or 10 o'clock at night. Sometimes
I would run out of food before I had a chance to go to the store.
I remember late one night when a bunch of rough looking men came in and
ordered hamburger steaks. They had
been up for several days gambling and you could tell they were all drinking.
Anyway, I had to tell them I was out of hamburger steaks.
Next they ordered pork chops and again I had to tell them I didn't have
any.
"Finally, one of the men grinned at me and
said, 'Miss Eunice, you just cook us anything you have!”
"I cooked them the biggest breakfast you ever saw
and before they left they told me that if anyone ever tried to bother me, to
just give them a call.
"I didn't think much about it until they
started to leave and I saw they were all carrying guns!"
Although Eunice worked long hours and
tried everything she could think of, she finally realized that if she was going
to make a living from the restaurant she would have to find a different
location. Its location across from
the school proved to be a magnet for the kids during recess and lunch. Though the restaurant was often packed, she simply couldn't make a
living on the nickels and dimes the children spent.
The one legacy from the location however,
was the addition of "Aunt" to her name.
While most of her friends called her Eunice; to a youngster, calling an
adult by their first name was unheard of.
The kids solved this problem by simply calling her, 'Aunt Eunice."
Aunt
Eunice Moves
In 1952, Aunt Eunice moved to her present
location on Andrew Jackson Way. Though
at first her business seemed to thrive, the new location brought problems she
had never faced before. The city
began widening the street in front and her customers were forced to run a
gauntlet of construction work to get to the restaurant.
Whenever it came a hard rain, the nearby drainage ditch would flood,
often leaving the restaurant with six inches of water covering the floor.
Thankfully, the city soon finished the
road construction, but though it would be several years before the flooding was
fixed, her customers solved this problem by simply sitting on the tables when
necessary!
Needless to say, by this time Aunt Eunice
had built up a loyal following that were willing to put up with such "minor
irritations." Part of her success had to do with the country ham and
homemade biscuits she had, by chance, begun to specialize in.
One of her loyal customers was Homer
Atchley, who at the time was the Weights and Measurements Inspector for service
stations across North Alabama. Many
of the service stations, in an effort to make extra income, sold country-cured
hams, which were displayed prominently in their front windows.
The fact that the stations did not have a permit to sell food made the
practice illegal. According to
legend, Atchley also had an insatiable appetite for country ham and biscuits,
which at the time, Aunt Eunice didn't sell.
Atchley, allegedly solved this problem by
simply confiscating the hams and delivering them to Aunt Eunice; who would then
cook him all the ham and biscuits he could eat.
Aunt
Eunice Learns to Drive
With her business starting to make a small profit, Aunt
Eunice decided it was time to take care of another problem.
She had never learned to drive and had for years depended on other people
for transportation.
"I didn't know nothing about cars but I
decided it was time to learn. I
called Ray's Auto and told them to bring me a car.
They must have though I was crazy because when they asked me what kind of
car, I said one that I can drive! They
brought me a 1956 Buick."
"I talked a friend of mine into teaching me
and the first time I got behind the steering wheel she told me to just keep
going until I hear glass breaking. When
I looked over at her a few minutes later, she was sitting there with her eyes
clenched shut and holding onto the door with both hands!"
As the years began to pass, Aunt Eunice and her restaurant
became a fixture in the community. It
was no longer just a restaurant where you went to eat, it was more like visiting
with a favorite member of the family. If
you received a promotion on your job, you stopped by to tell her.
If you became the proud parents of a new baby, Aunt Eunice was one of the
first people you told. For many
people, who had moved here from out of town, she became the replacement for the
family they left behind.
Politicians began stopping in to take the pulse of the
voters and editorial writers visited in search of stories. Astronauts, generals, sports legends and movie stars all ate
breakfast and rubbed elbows with whoever might be sitting next to them.
For people with out of town guests, Aunt Eunice's Country Kitchen became
a place they had to go to.
Most people however, returned time and
again for the warmth of the lady who had become everyone's Aunt.
Everyone who visited left with a kind word, a smile or a hug.
Aunt
Eunice Has Some Unwritten Rules
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