Jackson Jambalaya

I love the ads in the 1897 Ledger page...........

"The amount of $141 was appropriated for repairing school house and paying teachers in township six, range one east." --Daily Clarion Ledger, Wednesday, March 3, 1897, p. 4, col. 3.

We don't need no stinkin' bond issue.

Fond memories of many a visit to George Street and Cotton. Elixir is remember, but never patronized. What can I say about anything associated with LeFleur's since they used my name?! Jackson Steam Laundry is another matter. Obviously one of the Lehman family owned it, but it moved to south State Street at some point, more or less across the street from the Liberty Grill, which was featured here a few Mondays ago. In its final years, it was run by a man named Harold Gotthelf, whose family had been in the apparel business and who had married one of the Lehman "girls". After a massive heart attack, he was told he would have to retire if he wanted to live much longer, so he either sold or closed Jackson Steam Laundry and went to work for the state. Having paid holidays and vacations plus an eight hour day was his idea of retirement. Great guy who had even been a B17 pilot in Europe.

In the Daily Clarion Ledger, Wednesday, March 3, 1897, I love the "Around The City" column, especially the last story, "They Got Left." Also interesting is the entry "The sewers on North street are reported by residents of that neighborhood to be in a very filthy condition. The should be attended to." So the infrastructure problems are not so new to Jackson!

Since at least one other person is probably wondering, $141 in 1897 would be equal to $4082 today. Yes, really.

Around the City is the Facebook of its day?

Looks like the second column of the 1897 CL paper was the "back in the day" version of "checking in" on FaceBook

Elixir was great. You didn’t go in there and see rednecks with dumb fishing shirts on and mesh back caps on their sweaty heads. It was a little refined and a tad classy.

George Street Grocery was THE place for good times music back in the late 80's early 90's. I lived just up the street on George St. back in 1988. Saw Tinsley Ellis when he was with "The Heartfixers" play there a few times; one night while playing he stepped off the stage and onto the bar, walked down the bar, hopped off at the end by the kitchen, through the kitchen, down the fire escape on the back of the building, around to the front of the building where he played on the sidewalk for a bit before coming up the stairs and back to the stage...never missing a beat. The Tangents, Anson Funderburgh with Sam Myers and so many other great bands. We had a great club scene back in those days.

One of the interesting architectural features of the upstairs of George Street Grocery was the number of fireplaces/brick chimneys along the walls---in the past the upstairs was divided into several rooms and was well known as a local Brothel.

Before he became sheriff, Malcolm McMillin used to moonlight as door security upstairs at George Street.

Saw The Tangents and Sam Myers there a number of times. As mentioned above, it was a great music venue back in the day.