There's A Small-town Disco That Still Lives On In My Head

    I still think about it all the time while driving my work truck throughout the rolling hills of Southcentral Kentucky during the day.
     I can't get it out of my head.  The music still lives on my mind and motivates me after all these years.  I may not be able to dance or move like I used too but I still find the music especially motivating and inspiring.  I really love to listen to it with my iPhone and earplugs while walking on the treadmill at the gym.  I have a whole playlist on Amazon Prime Music dedicated to Disco and Dance Music. I find it invigorating and youthful.  There's just something about it.  I have a fantasy that if I was super wealthy, I would build a mansion in Bowling Green with a disco in it with the lights, dance floor, sound system and the whole nine yards and invite all my friends over to dance.



 The other day while driving my work truck, all of sudden the 1980 hit disco song, "Stomp" by Brothers Johnson came on the Sirius radio channel's Studio 54.  My mind began wander back to the days of my dad's lake house in the hills of North Mississippi when I was a 16 year-old kid in the fall of 1978.  I can still see myself looking in the mirror dressing up in my polyester pants and shirt. I had a job to do but it did not pay anything. I worked for free in 1978 because I loved it.  I was the disc jokey at the former small-town disco on the square of Hernando, Miss., in North Mississippi.

    Also, I couldn't wait to get out on the dance floor to strut my stuff.  I thought I was really cool.  I was the "Disco Boy."  My brother and friend used to like to tease me when he got home from the disco at night.  I didn't mind though because he thought it was funny.  It reminded me of that Frank Zappa song, "Disco Boy," or his other Zappa's other hit song during that time period, "Dancin' Fool.



  The small-town disco was alcohol free where the local kids could come in and dance at no charge.  I would be upstairs on the balcony sitting at a little desk flickering light switches on and off while the kids below danced on the dance floor lined with Christmas lights basically to the disco music on the jukebox.  Lol. And yes, there was a disco mirror ball too hanging from the ceiling with a couple of spotlights shinning on it too.  I had lots of fun with it for a while until I started getting bored with it.  Especially, since I was not making any money.  Eventually, the owner of the disco got upset with me because I quit showing up.  I told him, "Look,  you're not paying me anyway, so I do have to show up."  Eventually, the disco was turned into a video game arcade which was really popular with the local kids also because they had lots of PacMan, Gallatical and other popular games at the time.  But regardless, there's still a small-town disco that lives on my mind and I can't get it out of my head.  It's engrained in there. I don't mind though.  Because they are really sweet memories! Happy 2019!

   

Tompkinsville, Kentucky's World Famous Dovie Burgers

     TOMPKINSVILLE, KY.  _ As I slid out of my vehicle in the parking lot, I pulled out my iPhone out of my front left pant pocket and began snapping a couple pics of the outside of "Dovie's," home of the world famous "Dovie Burger" in Tompkinsville, Ky., which is about hour and twenty minute drive away from Bowling Green.

 

Once inside, I felt like I had stepped into a time machine, taking me back to the 1940's when the restaurant was first established with the same interior inside that absolutely fits an institution of hamburger royalty in rural Southcentral Kentucky and small town America.
    I came to pay my respects to the burger with a reputation that goes way beyond its restaurant's wood panelling walls and hardwood floors with a Coca Cola sign above a local bulletin board.  The Dovie burger reputation not only spreads throughout Kentucky but way beyond its borders perhaps even worldwide I would dare say.
 

There's also a square formica counter with stools on all sides on the inside. This is where I took my seat to honor and devour the almighty Dovie burger.  The crown jewel centerpiece and focal point of the restaurant is the large and secured gas frying pans with soybean oil in them that sits in the middle of the square counter where the guests sit to eat.  There were a couple of ladies wearing Dovie T-shirts and skirts frying the burgers while a couple of others ladies served the guests and worked the cash registers.  I noticed also that there was a lady in the kitchen in the rear of the building where the hamburgers are most likely being prepared along with the secret special sauce and trimmings that they put on the burgers.  I didn't have a chance to ask any questions about the special sauce.  I will next time.

   A nice, friendly young lady approached me and asked me what I would like to have.  And I asked, "Will one burger fill me up?" "No, you need two," she said. So I order two fully dressed Dovie burgers with the special sauce and a pickle and onion on top.  I also order a bottle of Coca Cola and a bag of Lay's original classic potato chips.
 

 Believe me, the Dovie burger lived up to its reputation!  It was love at first bite! This was the first time I had ever eaten a Dovie burger after hearing about them forever. And I have lived in Bowling Green for over 30 years now.  It's definitely worth the drive over to Tompkinsville if you ever get a chance to experience a Dovie Burger.  And don't wait 30 years like I did.  It will be an experience that you'll never forget because Dovie's is the one and only true burger royalty from Kentucky that dwells in a simple, downhome and humble restaurant with a very unique recipe and formula that has not changed for decades. Enjoy my friends!

Dovie's is located at 107 W 4th St, Tompkinsville, KY 42167