They didn’t use a wrecking ball like they do in the movies. They used an excavator. Tina watched from her window across the street as the machine went at the building like a bear or a lion swiping with its giant paw tearing flesh from its victim.
A woman was standing a short distance away with a large hose spraying water on the places the machine attacked. The process was fascinating and terrifying at the same time. She watched as the machine twisted and deposited the carnage into waiting bins on the flat bed of a semi-trailer.
Charley’s Tavern was going away in what she estimated would be tens of thousands of pieces of rubble destined for a landfill. Everything of value on the inside had been stripped away six years ago when Charley’s son Marvin sold the tavern. A couple of restaurants had tried to make a go of it, but the place was in bad shape – putting lipstick on a pig didn’t fly with the health inspectors and the new owners weren’t willing to do more. So, it sat for the past three years occasionally offering shelter to the unhoused, or a place to get high. Illicitly entering Charley’s was on the list of stuff teenagers and college students did to impress their friends. Rats, birds, spiders, cockroaches, termites, squirrels, and racoons moved in. Neighbors complained to the city council.
But, there was a time when Charley’s was the place to be. You could walk to Charley’s Tavern from anywhere in town. Neighbors met to have a few drinks, shoot some pool, or play some darts. You could dance to the music on the jukebox, and fall in love in a corner booth over a plate of mozzarella sticks or a basket of fries.
Tina’s parents met at Charley’s almost fifty years ago. Elyse and Tony had their first dance and first kiss there. Rumor has it Tina was conceived in the storage closet nobody ever seemed to remember to lock.
Sometimes “seven minutes in heaven” came with a hefty price, but Tony and Elyse were in love. Tony bought a ring, and they tied the knot at the courthouse before she was showing. They celebrated with family and friends at Charley’s before starting their new lives as husband and wife… father and mother. It was a happy marriage that produced four children. Elyse and Tony went to Charley’s every Saturday night. Important family events were celebrated there, and Tony’s friends gathered to toast him at his wake.
Elyse had a stroke soon after his death. Tina’s wife Josie died of ovarian cancer the year before, so Tina moved back home to be her mother’s caretaker.
After the kids were grown, Tony and Elyse split the house into a duplex, and they collected rent from tenants on the top floor. The two units were small, but the rent supplemented their retirement. Since she worked remotely, Tina’s work schedule was fairly flexible. She took on the job of landlord in addition to her job as a technical writer. She was pretty handy with minor repairs, and she had a list of reliable repairman for the major stuff. Sometimes the tenants were noisy or demanding, but all in all, it was working out well.
Six years ago, property values were falling as area businesses closed, it would have been hard to sell, so Tina’s siblings convinced her to stay in the house after their mother’s death. It was oddly comforting that her parents hadn’t lived to see the downfall of Charley’s Tavern. Elyse’s wake was one of the last functions held there.
Last year, a town renaissance started as investors began buying up cheap properties and tearing them down to build trendy homes and businesses. Gentrification had come to Holling. It was what the owners of Charley’s had been waiting for, and they received multiple offers as soon as it went on the market. No one knew who bought it or what they would be building there. According to scuttlebutt, it would be a Starbucks, a mattress store, or a bank. Tina was hoping for a café or another neighborhood tavern that served food just as Charley’s had. Most of the folks who frequented Charley’s had sold out and moved away, so she wasn’t hopeful. Her new neighbors didn’t seem the type to frequent a tavern.
Her newest tenants had expressed interest in buying both duplexes and converting them back into a single-family home. Her siblings were considering it, but where would she go? They would get a good price, but divided four ways her share wouldn’t go far to find a nice place. Maybe she could buy her siblings out and convert it back to a single-family home. Josey had been gone for seven years now, and things were moving along with Eileen. Could they make a home there?
She looked back out the window amazed at the progress being made by the demolition team. In a few days all signs Charley’s Tavern existed would be relegated to memories and old photographs.