“GRANDPA WAS A CANTANKEROUS OLD MAN,”
both David and Deborah Johns say in emphatic agreement.
“Growing up, I had always worked here, but when Grandpa’s business partner wanted out, I bought his 50 percent share. It was under the agreement that when Grandpa was going to hang it up, I would buy him out,” David tells me. “Grandpa lasted another six years,” Deborah adds.
“Every suggestion we made was greeted with a knee jerk, ‘You’re trying to run me out,’” David explains.
“He was a hard-core gambler and was more interested in getting his action in. People would be standing in line at lunchtime and he would be telling them to wait a minute while he was placing his bets on the phone.
“He had a craps table in the back of his original location, until the sheriff shut him down,” says David, looking back with a fondness that only time can restore. “It wasn’t because he was running an illegal gambling operation, but too many wives were complaining that their husbands were losing their paychecks.”
Grandpa could make some fine barbecue. After serving in the Marines in World War II, he came back and worked on a traveling crew as a block mason. It was on one of those jobs in Leighton, Alabama where he tasted some barbecue that was so good it changed his life. (Image 144)
Image 144: Sportsman’s Barbecue 231 Signal Mountain Boulevard • Chattanooga, TN 37405 • (423)265-1680
“It was prepared by an old black man, and my grandfather convinced him to teach him how to do it. After he learned, he came home and built the Sportsman.”
David and Deborah’s marriage was able to withstand Grandpa, and they turned the former gambling parlor and sometime barbecue joint into a homey little restaurant with fresh flowers and a pleasant little front porch. The only hint of trouble is Deborah’s allegiance to the Crimson Tide, but even her memorabilia manages to hang peacefully next to his Vols stuff. (Image 145)
Image 145
“I’ll never forget the first time I saw her. She had just moved into the neighborhood. I was driving home one Saturday afternoon and I caught a glimpse of her sunbathing in her backyard. I almost ran off the road,” David says with a big cheesy grin.
“It turned out that she was a buddy of mine’s cousin, and I saw his car parked in front soon after. I took that opportunity to stop by and introduce myself, and we’ve been together ever since.”
DEBORAH JOHNS’S GRANDMOTHER’S SECRET BANANA PUDDING
Pour 1 box of wafers on bottom of 9x9-inch cake pan or good-sized bowl. Cut all bananas up, sliced thin, width-wise. Drop in bananas. Pour second box of wafers on top.
Mix sugar, egg yolks, milk and flour. Place in a 2-quart saucepan and simmer 35 to 40 minutes, stirring every 2 to 3 minutes (otherwise it will stick). Take off when thick enough (spoon will glide through roux and separate). Pour roux over wafers and bananas. Refrigerate for 3-1/2 hours.
Note: Some prefer eating it hot.
Variation: Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, if desired. Mix in after roux has finished cooking. Deborah leaves this step out: “There is enough vanilla in the Nillas,” she says.