There were Slot machines, that were for play, which built out the hospital with the revenue.  So it wuz a real gossip pit, drinking hard liquor out of pint bottles. Hickie grew up fast.

You see, the bar, Hickie’s, wuz in his wife’s name ’cause he was disabled and on the crazy-check.  He jes’ couldn’t have a job, ’cause that would stop his check.

One June we wuz in a flood with three feet of water over the road.  Hickie’s had just opened up, and the business wuz hot, but the flood would have shut him right down.

So Hickie bought a pontoon boat and wuz ferrying folks out to Hickie’s with the pontoon from the levee.

We had the highest point on the lake and were known as the smart-ass camp and had the beer joint market cornered for 3 weeks. We even had a cot room so you didn’t have to leave just take a nap and come back strong.

We loaded the pontoon with the order from the beer truck and just kept on trucking.

You can still see the no wake signs along the road coming in, left over from the flood.  But today all you can see of the bar is the little mound they all used to sit on and the empty socket where the electric meter used to be.  Some Cutoff history that’s all but gone today.