“SON, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.”
“I’ve been the best I can, and you can be better.” That’s what Mr. Scott told Ricky Parker in the spring of 1989. The Scotts took a liking to him when they spotted him working at Morgan’s Service Station. Ricky was fourteen years old.
“Mr. Scott was a no-nonsense old-fashioned sort of man,” Ricky says. “He liked that I didn’t grow my hair out long as was the style back then. He asked about me and found out I was working three jobs and going to school. He introduced himself and told me I now had only one job.”
Ricky was a hard worker. That was obvious, something a barbecue man could easily spot. After all Early Scott started selling barbecue by the side of the road, with only 18 dollars to his name. What wasn’t so obvious was the terrible situation Ricky faced at home. (Image 142)
Image 142
“On one particular night I came home and saw my father beating on my mother. I took a baseball bat to him. He threw me out of the house. Told me I didn’t live there anymore. The Scotts adopted me the next day.”
Ricky had already been working for the Scotts for two years. They didn’t have any children, and besides, they already treated him like their own.
“Mr. Scott used to check me out of school at 11:00 and return me at 1:00 every day to help out during the lunch rush. I would work before and after school, too. When I was a senior, he asked me point blank, ‘Do you want to earn a living, or go to school?’ I told him I wanted to earn a living, and I’ve been doing this ever since.”
Ricky slow cooks whole hogs the old-fashioned way. His pits are covered with many layers of corrugated cardboard. The smoke house has one large exhaust fan, which is overmatched. The low-lying rafters and ceiling are covered in a greasy soot.
“They won’t insure me, but they can’t shut me down neither. I’m grandfathered in.”
Ricky’s wife, Tina, is a nurse at the cardiac-cath unit of Jackson General. “I mess ’em up, she fixes ’em up,” Ricky tells between puffs from his Swisher Sweet.
“She helps out as do our four kids. I hope that some day I can throw one of them the keys.” (Image 143)
Image 143: Scotts Barbecue 412 W Route 1 • Lexington, TN 38351 • (731)968-0420
RICKY PARKER’S BBQ HOT SAUCE
They do this by sight, and it’s not written down, so it’s always a little different.
Mix all dry ingredients in an empty bottle, then pour in half the vinegar. Shake well, then add the rest of the vinegar and shake again. If too hot for your taste, add sugar or vinegar to dilute. You can also start over and cut back on the pepper.