Chapter 1 - The Trackside Tavern

May 4, 1945
East Falls, Washington County, Maryland.

East Falls is an Appalacian railroad town that serves as an interchange point between the Baltimore & Ohio and the Norfolk & Western railroads. The B&O also has a small locomotive maintenance shop here.

This is the story of the Trackside Tavern.

This tavern is now owned by Arbutus "Boots" Kirby, a 31 year old childless widow whose husband Harold had been been a flight engineer on a B-17 nicknamed Ragamuffin that had been shot down over France in October of 1942. According to the official report, no parachutes were seen as the plane went down and Harold has been declared dead. Using the life insurance money she received from the Army Air Corps and some savings, Boots was able to purchase the Trackside Tavern (which at the time was called Gunthers Bar - no apostrophe) after the prior owner, Hank Gunther, was sent to prison for attempted murder and, consequently, defaulted on the mortgage.

Unbeknownst to the locals, Boots has a silent partner, a black man named Ezekiel "Zeke" Buchannon (pronounced Buck-hannon), who does all the cooking and most of the manual labor despite having a hook in place of his left hand. Zeke is a physically imposing man who had been a supervisory cook in the Navy aboard the U.S.S. Arizona at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. During battle stations, he was assigned to one of the 5-inch/25-caliber anti-aircraft guns and his job was to ensure that spent shells went where they were supposed to go. As the attack was under way, a bullet from a strafing Japanese fighter hit him in the left wrist, nearly severing his hand. Minutes later, as a corpsman was placing a tourniquet above the wrist to stop the bleeding, a massive explosion jerked the enormous battleship down then up throwing Buchannon into the water.

After returning to East Falls in the fall of 1942, Zeke found himself looking for work without much success although his story had been written up in the local newspaper and he was briefly treated with an unusual amount of respect for a black man. Zeke was granted a small partial disability pension based on his years of Navy service and moved into one of the railroad-owned clapboard houses occupied by his stepsister's family. Life there was hellish and he vowed to move out at the earliest opportunity.

In the spring of 1943, Boots had been grieving the loss of her husband for six months and found herself facing financial peril as the mortgage on the small cottage she and her husband had bought was quickly eating up her savings. Then one day she and Zeke both happened to be at the post office as Zeke had come to pick up his disability check. Boots, who had never spoken a complete sentence to a black man before, recognized Zeke from the newspaper article and took the opportunity to thank him for his service to the nation. Zeke thanked her for the kindness and mentioned that if she had any odd jobs that she needed done, he would be happy to do them for her. She said that she had nothing at the moment but would keep him in mind.

The trial and conviction of Hank Gunther was the talk of the town that spring. The closing of the bar made the temperance advocates happy but was a source of aggravation for many of the B&O railroad workers who had been forced to deal with local moonshiners if they wished relatively easy access to spirits. These were not the most savory of characters. When the sheriff posted the foreclosure notice on the door of the tavern, Boots saw an opportunity to have an income and a place to live if she could find a way to assume the mortgage. She went to the East Falls Building and Loan to inquire and met with a Mr. Stoltzfus who politely told her that her that her lack of experience made her a poor candidate to run the business profitably. Yet somehow (and this was the cause of some rather nasty speculation by certain townsfolk) the Building and Loan eventually decided to give her a chance.

Boots reopened Gunthers Bar as the Trackside Tavern on November 1, 1943. Her one "employee" was Zeke who served as "chief cook and bottle washer" as well as occasional bouncer. Boots tended bar and did all the paperwork. Among the railroad workers there was much rejoicing. As time wore on, Zeke and Boots fell in love and now live secretly as husband and wife. Many in the town suspect the truth but won't say anything - perhaps because Zeke is a veteran or perhaps because no one wants to see the tavern change hands again.

Ordinarily, Zeke is never expected to serve customers. But on occasion, if Boots is not around and a thirsty customer wants a quick refill and explicitly asks, he will hook the tap handle. As the regulars have gotten to know Zeke, and as more veterans are showing up, Zeke's race seemed to be becoming less of an issue. But he keeps his DD-14 honorable discharge and purple heart certificates mounted in picture frames that are plainly visible behind the bar.

Photo taken on my HO scale model railroad