Mike Burton waxed eloquent on Facebook recently about the coffeehouse he established in Rome, Georgia, in 1966. Here's Mike's post ---
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I came home from Texas in the summer of 1966. My teaching job would not start until Fall so I Looked around for something that would be exciting, different and fun. In Texas, my friend Robert Howell, would often go out for high dollar entertainment. This is before I got married in 1965. He had discovered a coffee house down in one of the barrios, “Prometheus Bound”. A small dumpy place loaded with atmosphere. Cost of admission was the price of a spiced apple cider. Extremely crowded and somewhat noisy and dark but oh the folks singers. All kinds of people doing cover songs from Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary to Irish ballads. Dyed in the wool hippies everyone of them. They sat on a stool in a corner with a bright spotlight on them.
I was infatuated with one young woman in particular. She wore tight jeans and barefoot with the required checkered shirt. Her hair was quite long and parted in the middle. She must have used an iron to make it so straight…a beautiful, glowing auburn brown, gleaming in the Spotlight. Her lovely unspoiled face was soulful at times and raucous at times. Bob cured me of my fantasy. He said, “One night you are going to sweet talk her and take her out back where she will be so impressed by you she will remove her jeans, Unfortunately, you will discover she has large ugly red splotches all over those milk white legs. Psychologically, a mean thing to do but it worked. I was cured.
Being young and arrogant, I looked around Rome, Georgia and thought that this place was culturally deprived. Having been a pet of the Rome Art League, I was quickly elected President. My first big project was to establish a coffee house that would have entertainment, poetry readings, one act plays and art shows as well as publish an art magazine. Some people thought this was overly ambitious but not yours truly.
First problem was finding a building for free with possibility free utilities. Someone suggested the old water works building on the hill top behind the civic center. No problem, I would just convince the city government to let me use this building for the betterment of Rome. I would do all the work including maintenance on the old vacant building. Let’s say, Bruce, the city manager was less than impressed with my idea. Not exactly sure what happened, but suffice it to say that someone talked to his daughter who was an artist and she convinced him to support the concept.
I remember the building as huge - 100 to 150 feet long and 60 or 70 feet wide. Walls were massive, thick brick walls about 20 or 30 feet high with the center being ten feet higher than that. Light came from the cupolas on top. Walls were unsightly and ugly so I went to see my friend. Montgomery at Trend mills. My old truck was loaded with a gigantic roll of burlap 14 feet wide and long long long. My brother and a couple of my high school students climbed tall ladders and attached used lumber across the top by driving in cement nails. We then cut the burlap and stapled it to the boards. I must say it looked quite nice and coffee housey. Mc Lean Marshall, one of the founders of the Rome Art League supervised us as he chain smoked.
Someone gave me a truck load of used 4 x 4s which I cut for table legs. Next was to find some used plywood that had been used to make cement forms. Cut in half it fit nicely on the legs and we had free tables. A trip to the salvage store in the cotton block. Someone help me with the name. There was a large box with “restaurant stuff” that he came down to the unholy price of $5,00 but he called it a white elephant - I could not see the contents until I left the store. Carolyn was thrilled - dozens of thick old white coffee mugs, salt and pepper shakers, napkin holders, and assorted items she put to good use. Burlap was cut for the table cloths and we bought a gallon of apple cider and a box of cinnamon for the opening night. Sold out in ten minutes. We doubled the cider every week until we were serving 10 or 12 gallons a night.
We got a little story in the Rome News and set up for tryouts one afternoon. At the appointed hour a couple of guys drove up in an old car. They had on the requisite jeans and tennis shoes but one had a buzz cut and the other one almost had a buzz. Then Richard Ware pulled out his guitar where he had taped a list of sons on one side. He and his good friend Gary Smith began to play and sing PPM songs that sounded like the original (minus Mary). They were hired on the spot and promised the resounding amount of $5.00 per night. Guess what I named the place - “Prometheus Bound.” For those of you with a Greek Myth back ground. He was the one who stole fire from Zeus (knowledge etc.) and was eternally punished.
This story to be continued.
Selected Comments from the Facebook post:
I wrote about the coffee house here while remembering my friend Gary Smith a few days after his sudden death.
Gleaning Facebook is series of posts that preserve bits and pieces from my Facebook wanderings and ponderings. Here I can access them more easlily.
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