His Dogness

Before Father’s Day 2007, the newspaper invited people in the community to write in, telling us about their fathers. Frances Davis Branon wrote a lovely piece about her father and the diner he ran. Because of space limitations, I was able to include only the merest morsel of her story in the paper.

Since I decided to start including pieces by others at His Dogness & Friends, I thought it would be nice to see whether Ms. Branon would be interested in publishing the whole piece here. She graciously agreed.

So here it is:

“My dad was a cook by trade, a short-order cook for more than 34 years of his 94-year life. He had other jobs at various times in those years but the cooking business affected our entire family’s lives and formative years. Just to set the record straight, he was a cook not a chef.

“Dad was a cook and baker in World War II, trained in preparing large amounts of ‘good grub’ for the fighting men and women of that era. He could take powdered eggs, add a few dozen fresh eggs (when they were available), salt ‘n’ black pepper, milk, a dash or bottle full of Tabasco sauce, Worchestershire or Texas Pete, depending on the amount he was needing to prepare. The soldiers in the ‘Mess Hall’ devoured it due to actual hunger from all the duties, drills, activities and fighting since 4 a.m. roll call or possibly all night and day long.

“He was stationed in Germany. When the atomic bomb dropped in Japan, as so ordered by our President Harry S. Trume, the war was declared over! Dad, Floyd E. Davis Sr., was shipped home to begin his cafe business again in Brooks Cross Roads in Hamptonville, N.C.

“He operated the Davis Cafe prior to being drafted into the Army.

“When Dad left home, our mother was expecting her third child. My brother, Floyd E. Davis Jr. was 4 years of age at the time, and I was 9 years old. He closed the cafe and reported for duty in the United States of America Army. A sad, unsettling time indeed! This was the Second World War. We were very frightened.

“So, now back to the story of returning home following the declaration of ‘The War Is Over!’ Our dad purchased some previously used equipment, counters, stocks and tables in Winston-Salem and Greensboro. Following much hard work sanitzing, installing, scrubbing, painting, ordering food supplies and many local and state inspections, we reopened the combination Davis Cafe and Greyhound Bus Station at the intersection of U.S. 21 and U.S. 421. Hence the name Brooks Cross Roads, which was among the most highly traveled roads in North Carolina during the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s prior to construction of I-77 in the mid-1970s and the new four-lane 421 in the late 1990s.

“Now, for your close-working, yet enjoyable and life-changing experiences. Since I was the oldest child, at the age of 11 years, I helped work at the cafe, earning one silver dollar a week, yes, one silver dollar a week. I saved up $25 to purchase U.S. Savings Bonds. I would earn nickels, dimes and quarters in tips from customers for my personal spending money. At that age, I was old enough to take orders on my waitress pad and deliver them to Dad to be quickly prepared and served.

“I would carry trays of sandwiches, coffee, home-made tea, French fries, salads, cantaloupes hollowed out and filled with scoops of vamilla ice cream (Yummy!), fried pies, pound cake toasted on the grill with butter and served with ice cream and coffee, plus Orange Crush, Grapette, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, R.C. and Cheerwine. Also there were cartons of Coble white milk, chocolate milk and buttermilk. Yes, lots of men enjoy buttermilk with their meals.

“I also learned to dip ice cream. It was 5 cents for one dip, 10 cents for two dips, 15 cents for three dips and so on. You get the idea of prices in the late 1940s, eh? We also sold fruit and nut sundaes, milkshakes, the Heinz soup kitchen, oyster stew, clam chowder, home-made chili and made three gallons of slaw every other day.

“Also, get this! We peeled a bushel of potatoes every a.m. except Sunday because we were closed for church and rest. We prepared home-made French fries every day and we had bags of frozen commercial fries in the large freezer for back up when the home-made ones sold out. ‘First come, first served.’ That’s what we said.

“As I learned and grew older, I was allowed to operate the cash register and make change, take telephone orders from tobacco farmers for large quantities for their workers – 20 hot dogs, 20 hamburgers and 20 cups of tea by 10:30 to 11 a.m. before the big three-to-four-hour dinner rush began.

“Some neighbors and workers had a 30-minute lunch break. For instance, the Duke Power workers, postal and doctor employees, Yadkin Valley Telephone technicians and workers, highway maintenance man and many other service station and insurance-office workers. We also had many folks waiting to ride the Greyhound bus, taking tourists to Roaring Gap, the fish hathery, Charlotte, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Appalachian mountains, beaches and other destinations.

“Truck drivers were loyal customers for all those years. The Lovette Egg and Poultry Company of North Wilkesboro, the eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina truck drivers ate at our cafe for 30-plus years. We packed paper sacks full of home-made roast pork, sliced home-made barbecue, chopped barbecue, which was pit-cooked.

“Twenty-five cents for all-the-way hot dogs, 25 cents for egg sandwiches, 25 cents for bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches, just to give you an idea of the 1960s prices. A plate of hamburger steak, barbecue or roast pork with French fries and a small salad, toasted bread and a choice of drink was anywhere from 90 cents to $1.20. It depended on small quantities for a lady or large amounts for hard-working men. Many times we sat out black coffee or home-brewed tea for the overnight truck drivers pulling a load up the mountains to help keep them alert, hopefully.

“Now it’s ‘Tea Time,’ time to reveal the Davis family secret tea recipe developed by our Dad and Mom. The tea was Jewel Tea brand, with real sugar stirred in and thoroughly melted in the brewing process. When the tea was cooled down, add Minute Maid frozen orange juice and Minute Maid frozen lemonade. The proportions for each ingredient are up to whoever is making the tea. Now, since Mom and Dad are both in their Heavenly Home, I feel it is time to share the refreshing, healthy, satisfying tea. Try it, you may like it. Really, you might.

“Our Mother has been in Heaven since 1992, leaving Earth at the age of 85. Dad followed her in 2005 at the age of 94.

“Oh, yes, the third child born during World War II in August 1945 is now a family businessman in Richmond, Va., for over 30 years. His name is Spencer Cox Davis. Also there was a sister that joined our happy family in the late 1940s named Margaret Carol, who grew up in Hamptonville with all of us and now resides in Nashville, Tenn.

“All of we four children were reared, received more schooling at the cafe in addition to all of us being high school graduates of West Yadkin High School.

“The other siblings worked and helped some as I did at the family-owned-and-operated cafe. But the big difference was that I actually liked it. I enjoyed preparing the meals for others to enjoy. It didn’t appear to me that my brothers and sister liked it like I did.

“Some folks are happy when they partake in eating their meals. Some wiggle their feet, shake a leg back and forth. Some do not wish to converse with others because they are hungry and on a tight schedule, so they keep right on eating and gulping. Then others prefer to eat and talk at the same time with a mouth full of food, meaning others are going to get a nice sight of ‘seafood,’ if you catch my drift. You also have the neat eaters, take a bite, chew, swallow, talk and continue this process until they have a ‘happy plate,’ meaning empty.

“When you are a cook, waitress, busboy or busgirl, as the case may be, it is very interesting to quietly observe people because people are funnier than anyone.

“I enjoyed the work with my Mom and Dade at the cafe to the point that I have been employed in several restaurants at different intervals during all of my working years. So, my Dad’s and Mother’s strong work ethic, honesty, fairness and good morals guided my life, my marriage and was instrumental in our three children’s lives. It has also been a large factor in my eight grandchldren’s lives, too. So Dad’s influences go on and on.

“Dad prepared The Easter Sunrise Breakfast at Flat Rock Baptist Church for over 40 years simply because he desired to give back, pay it forward, serve his Lord and our Lord’s people.

“So, yes! If you like your job, love to serve others, as our Lord and Master so commanded, work can be done in fun, rewarding and can be your hobby as well. As for Dad, Floyd Estel Davis Sr., was one brave, courageous, well-rounded and happy Workman!”

The End