| Summary: | (5:47) Ethel Schmidlkofer discusses her father's business endeavors in Florence, Alabama and her experiences at the Pig Trail, her family's drive-in restaurant. This interview is part of an oral history project funded by a grant from the Alabama Historical Records Board, managed by the Alabama Department of Archives and History staff, using funds provided by the National Historical Preservation and Records Commission.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Ethel Schmidlkofer
July 21, 2009
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Juliann Losey and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 6 of 12
Ethel Schmidlkofer: My dad was a big jokester and so were his brothers. They, they all were.
Rhonda Haygood: Were they all here also?
ES: Um-hum.
RH: They were all here.
ES: All four of the brothers stayed here. Now my dad had at different times when he was younger, he did not stay with, my dad was a more independent person. He always had a separate income from, from the taxi company, you know, until he ran it himself. Like I say, he owned the Pig Trail Drive-in. He had a body shop that he had for years and years and years and of course he did the work for the Cab Company as well as took in outside work. And that was down on West Tennessee Street, which was by, there’s an alley that goes up beside Rogers? Yeah, that if you went all the way through it, it’d be at the back of Rogers, and the shop that he bought was right there. It was a big shop. And then on the other side up here for years and years and years was Western Union. But when my daddy bought the shop, and I don’t know what year that was, I don’t even know if I’ve got that written down anywhere, but most shops opened at seven, so he got there, you know, about ten to seven or something and he started to unlock the door and the door was unlocked. He thought, “What’s going on here?” So when he walked in, there’s four men in the office sitting playing dominos and Daddy looked at them and he said, “Would y’all mind telling me how y’all got in here?” And one of them said, “Well, hell, we got a key.” And they had been coming there to play dominos for years so the man before had just given them a key and they came and played anytime they wanted. And most of them, they were older, either widows or old farts that never married. They, they lived over at the Negley Hotel, and so it’s just across the street, and they’d come over there and play dominos. Sometimes they’d play in there almost all day long.
RH: Did he let them keep a key?
ES: Oh yeah.
RH: And continue-
ES: After he got, well, you know that day, he talked to them and he figured out, you know, that they, they weren’t going to bother anything in the shop. There wasn’t anything in there they cared anything about. They’d play dominos for hours and they didn’t bet. They kept a score though, but they didn’t actually bet any money. But Daddy liked older people. He liked being around older people. I always have too. You can learn an awful lot just if you, just hide in a corner and keep your ears open.
Juliann Losey: Well, could you tell us again about the Pig Tail Drive-in?
ES: Pig Trail. Now, my mother named that. I don’t know how she came up with that name, but she did. He bought it when I was twelve years old, so that would have been in 1953 and he sold when I was sixteen. Basically they had, of course barbeque was the number one thing, but he did steaks and I mean, it was just a general, you know but it was a drive-in. And on weekends, believe it or not, even way back then, they stayed open from five in the morning till two the next morning. And you wouldn’t have thought anybody’d stay open that late. Not way back then. So that’s why I said it was THE hangout, because on Friday’s and Saturday nights probably the only place in town that was open. It was a place where rarely did we have trouble with anybody. Almost everybody knew that it was Dad’s and my mother’s and they respected both of them. And you didn’t, you didn’t rarely find a problem anywhere with anybody being ugly to anybody or anything. And one night my dad was out of town and I was all of about thirteen I guess and one of the car-hops was pregnant and she had, well, there were three sides that had windows on it and most of the time if you wanted curb service that’s where you’d park, you know. But if you were gonna cause trouble or might be just trying to, I don’t know, slip around and drink or whatever, a lot of times they’d park around at the back. The little girl that was pregnant came in the back door and she was crying. And I said, “What‘s the matter?” And she said, “I’m not going back out there and wait on them.” And I said, “Well, what’s the matter?” And she said, “I’m just not going back out there.” Of course, she didn’t want to tell me, because I was so young, I’m sure, so she told my mother. And Mother was afraid to go out there and say anything to them. So when their order came up I said, “I’ll take it out there.” And mother said, “You’re not going out there!” And I said, “Yeah I’ll go out there. I’m not afraid of them.” So I went out and hung the thing on the car and told them how much it was and they began to think they’s going to pull a lot on me, you know. And I looked at them and I said, “Look, I’m taking the food back in or you’re going to pay me. And I’m not going to listen to a bunch of this cussing and carrying on, so what’s it going to be?” And he said, “Well, you’re not taking the food back and we’re not paying you.” I said, “You’re not?” And he said, “No.” I said, “Well, suit yourself then.” And I just dumped, they had two cups of coffee and I just dumped the tray inside the car and took the tray and went back inside. My daddy taught me to stand up for myself and in later years he said he thought he taught me too good. I once told him, I said, “Daddy,” I said, “I’m going to own the ground I’m on whether it’s standing up or laying down, I’m not backing up.” And I never did.
JL: So, wait, where in Florence was the Pig Trail?
ES: It was on South Court Street, it was a small, rectangular building with big windows on four sides and it was made out of grey Perma Stone. And it had been a restaurant when my dad bought it, but he redid the whole thing, and installed the barbeque pit and renamed it and everything, of course.
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