T.P. Tavern Historical Marker Dedication
Posted by Roylene McIlhaney Davis on November 5, 2008, 10:28 pm
Message modified by administrator Badger November 8, 2008, 4:19 pm
Thought I would report to some of you who might remember the old T.P. Tavern when it once stood out here on the property where our home is now and of course has been since 1982, regarding the dedication of the Historical Marker. The Dedication ceremony was held on Oct. 25, 2008....several years since it burned to the ground in 1976. Most of you know my grandfather Jim Sloan owned it and my parents Roy and Corkie McIlhaney moved our family in the apartment in back so that she could take care of my grandfather whom I called Papa. My brother Rayford and I were very well sheltered in this place....we were not allowed to take part in any activities other than sit at the family table on band night and watch the band an hr. or two and then to the back we had to go. We had no interest in the activities there anyway as we were too busy in school...most of you remember that Rayford was a top athlete for the Badgers. The place in the 50's was run very strictly by my grandfather the years we were there....He insisted on running it with an iron hand. He never allowed people who were too intoxicated to stay nor minors to enter. A woman could not dance with her shoes off nor a man with his hat on or he wasn't past going out after them with his walking cane. Papa never called anyone by their real name. I was Cookie and Rayford was Butch. He would say, "Cookie I hear the old Doodlebug coming down the track," referring to the old train that came down the track in back of the 16 acre property each day. He was very good to us....The only bad thing I ever did while there was that one time I moved my bed over by the door that was nailed up where noone could enter....I'm sure so I could see what I could hear being a teenager.....well I heard alright...I never liked cursing and the couple on the other side of the door were having an argument and the woman was using some very unlady like words....I finally tired of it and I went and got one of my Mother's hat pins and there was a hole in the door about hip high on the lady and each time she would say a bad word I would stick the pin through the door and stick her with it. She would scream out and I would hear my Mom going over to her to see what was wrong and the woman insisted there were bugs under the booth....after about 3 sticks and yells my Mother even sprayed under the booth with insect spray....I finally tired of that game and moved my bed back on the other side of the room...I never told my Mother until I grew up as she wouldn't have found it funny but Papa would have....The place as you probably know was known for some celebrities having played there before reaching fame such as Ernest Tubb, Bob Wills, and even Lawrence Welk added a little elegance to the place...Rattlesnake derbies and wrestling matches were held there in the early days.....Wayland Seals and his band played there with Dan and Jimmy both in the band and Jimmy couldn't wait unttil intermission to come back to the apartment to play cowboys with Rayford and I...and I of course insisted on being Roy Rogers....with my reason being my name was Roylene...Rayford would finally say "alright I'll be Gene Autry!" Jimmy later became known for Seals & Croft and of course Dan is now a country music celebrity......the place never caused Rayford or me to want to drink....in fact probably the opposite! The dedication was attended by over 50 people and a live band with Tommy Owens Commissioner of Upton Co, along with Joanne Darby, Glen welling and others furnished music for the festivities.....cookies and punch were served by the Upton Co Historical Commission....It was so much fun and I gave a history mostly relating the days of the fifties when my grandfather, Jim Sloan ran it....as I felt after his death and we left there the place was never ran the same....My children's father Lawrence Chan Chandler and I purchased the 16 acres from the estate in 1982 and of course only 8 years later he passed away and our 2 children had grown up and left home, so I was alone out here on the T.P, Acres which I named it as a memory of Papa...only with a 34 year old horse and a little dog named Punky Lou....then 11 years later I met Jay V. Davis whom my brother had told me much about because of his athletic abilites and he had been a coach and Principal in Odessa until retirement. We were married 7 years ago so we live happily here with Jay glad to be back home in McCamey...as for me, I often walk around the property and sometimes I think I hear the whispers of a crowd and the strains of a fiddle playing "Faded Love," and always I hear my Papa saying, "I'm glad you're home Cookie."
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