From the March 1, 2023 edition
A couple of years ago, The Longacre Tavern had an electrical fire in the basement of the building. I received several e-mails, text messages and telephone calls to alert me about this very quickly.
From the time that I was two-years-old until I was 16, my family lived in the oldest and largest part of The Longacre Tavern at 4813 Madison Avenue. I enjoyed growing up in that house. We had great neighbors, several with kids my age. Lots of outside baseball and basketball were always in the works after school.
Things haven’t gone well for The Longacre Tavern after the fire. The only parts of the business that are still standing are the sections that were added onto the main building. The only part of our old house remaining is the basement.
I saw a Facebook post from the owner of the property and it said that the property was now on the market. I sure miss being able to stop in to the tavern when it was open and let my memories slide back to the 1940’s and 50’s. I could walk through the building and see the fireplace that was part of our living room.
Memories of hanging my Christmas stockings on that fireplace and scamper back the next morning to see what Santa dropped in them to surprise me.
Several years ago, we had a family reunion on my mom’s side of the family. We scheduled a lunch at the Longacre Tavern. We were also given a tour of the facility, including the basement, by a young lady. When we reached the bottom of the basement stairs, she stopped me and pointed to several wires that were stretched across the ceiling. She asked what they were and why were they there.
I explained that those were winter clothes lines, because in those days there were very few electric or gas dryers. We also had outside clothes lines, but during the cold winter, mom used the basement ones. She seemed very impressed.
I still enjoy driving past the property and sometimes driving through the neighborhood. The other day as I was driving past, I remembered a very interesting afternoon for me when I was probably five-or six-years-old.
It was a weekend and we had family company visiting. There were several from mom’s side of the family. I remember my aunt from Pittsburgh was there for a visit. There were probably eight or nine adults in the house. The only young kid was me. I had no clue what they were doing and talking about. I finally decided to go outside and play.
I had a small pedal powered fire truck that I rode around the house on the sidewalk. I was using the sidewalk in the front yard for awhile and decided to petal around to the back yard. As I headed along the sidewalk on the southside of the house, I came face to face with a small monkey. We both stopped and stared at each other. He seemed like a nice little fellow and I thought I should invite the adults out to meet him.
I walked to the front door and called to them. I yelled that there was a monkey in the yard and they should come and see it.
All I heard from those adults was loud laughter. I tried again and received the same response. I just stood there trying to figure out what I should do next. Finally, my aunt from Pittsburgh got up and walked through the house and stepped outside with me. She asked me where this monkey was and we walked around the side of the house and they got to meet each other.
She quickly ran to the door and yelled, “There is a monkey out here!”
The little fellow got a bit scared when several more adults came running out. He climbed up into a close tree. He sat on a branch and watched us jumping around and laughing. He would not come out of the tree.
As evening approached and it was getting dark, we put out some food and watched at the bottom on the tree for him. The next morning, he was gone. A few days later, my parents found out that he had escaped from a animal show that was being presented at Longacre Pool and Park. They heard that he had been found and he once again was a part of the monkey show.
Memories…… I love them.
Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. He can be reached through email at fdshonk@aol.com.
A couple of years ago, The Longacre Tavern had an electrical fire in the basement of the building. I received several e-mails, text messages and telephone calls to alert me about this very quickly.
From the time that I was two-years-old until I was 16, my family lived in the oldest and largest part of The Longacre Tavern at 4813 Madison Avenue. I enjoyed growing up in that house. We had great neighbors, several with kids my age. Lots of outside baseball and basketball were always in the works after school.
Things haven’t gone well for The Longacre Tavern after the fire. The only parts of the business that are still standing are the sections that were added onto the main building. The only part of our old house remaining is the basement.
I saw a Facebook post from the owner of the property and it said that the property was now on the market. I sure miss being able to stop in to the tavern when it was open and let my memories slide back to the 1940’s and 50’s. I could walk through the building and see the fireplace that was part of our living room.
Memories of hanging my Christmas stockings on that fireplace and scamper back the next morning to see what Santa dropped in them to surprise me.
Several years ago, we had a family reunion on my mom’s side of the family. We scheduled a lunch at the Longacre Tavern. We were also given a tour of the facility, including the basement, by a young lady. When we reached the bottom of the basement stairs, she stopped me and pointed to several wires that were stretched across the ceiling. She asked what they were and why were they there.
I explained that those were winter clothes lines, because in those days there were very few electric or gas dryers. We also had outside clothes lines, but during the cold winter, mom used the basement ones. She seemed very impressed.
I still enjoy driving past the property and sometimes driving through the neighborhood. The other day as I was driving past, I remembered a very interesting afternoon for me when I was probably five-or six-years-old.
It was a weekend and we had family company visiting. There were several from mom’s side of the family. I remember my aunt from Pittsburgh was there for a visit. There were probably eight or nine adults in the house. The only young kid was me. I had no clue what they were doing and talking about. I finally decided to go outside and play.
I had a small pedal powered fire truck that I rode around the house on the sidewalk. I was using the sidewalk in the front yard for awhile and decided to petal around to the back yard. As I headed along the sidewalk on the southside of the house, I came face to face with a small monkey. We both stopped and stared at each other. He seemed like a nice little fellow and I thought I should invite the adults out to meet him.
I walked to the front door and called to them. I yelled that there was a monkey in the yard and they should come and see it.
All I heard from those adults was loud laughter. I tried again and received the same response. I just stood there trying to figure out what I should do next. Finally, my aunt from Pittsburgh got up and walked through the house and stepped outside with me. She asked me where this monkey was and we walked around the side of the house and they got to meet each other.
She quickly ran to the door and yelled, “There is a monkey out here!”
The little fellow got a bit scared when several more adults came running out. He climbed up into a close tree. He sat on a branch and watched us jumping around and laughing. He would not come out of the tree.
As evening approached and it was getting dark, we put out some food and watched at the bottom on the tree for him. The next morning, he was gone. A few days later, my parents found out that he had escaped from a animal show that was being presented at Longacre Pool and Park. They heard that he had been found and he once again was a part of the monkey show.
Memories…… I love them.
Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. He can be reached through email at fdshonk@aol.com.
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