I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to fill up with gas and to get me a little box of Jake’s barbecue. I pulled up in front of the pumps and cut the motor. My car had not stopped rolling good before Jake was out the front door and asking if I needed some gas. I told Jake to fill ‘er up. Jake began his routine and started to talk about how the price of gas has come back down after the two hurricanes that tore up the Gulf Coast. I glanced at the numbers on the front of the pump and they did not look all that cheap to me, but I guess any price below three dollars per gallon is most reasonable these days. Jake was chattering on about the change back to regular time. He calls it Sun Time because the sun is straight overhead at noon with regular time. Jake likes the normal time better cos he says that is the way God intended time to be. Years ago, when the government first began to mess around with the time, you would hear people complaining about it. But the government has been messing with our lives so much that people have given up complaining. They just take government meddling as a matter of course. Jake finished filling my tank and asked if I would be needing anything else. I told him I had come over for some of his barbecue. Jake grinned real big and said he just had some made up fresh. I followed him inside. I have never known to ask Jake about his barbecue that he had not just made some up fresh.
There was the smell of wood smoke inside the store from the pot belly stove. I saw the Reverend Johnson sitting over by the stove along with Hermann Spencer and Arnold Suggs. Arnold is our local deputy and he doesn’t hang out at Charlie’s much. I went over to say, “Hello.”
Arnold is one of those guys who sticks his hand out at you every time he sees you. I took his hand and we exchanged grips. I asked how things were getting on and Arnold said he couldn’t complain. Wasn’t no point to it in any case. If he did complain, it did no good. I grinned and Hermann asked if I was getting a serving of barbecue from Jake. I said that was the intent. I was remembering the very first report I wrote for Charlie’s was on the occasion about five years back when Jake had got in touch with me wanting to set up a web site to sell barbecue over the internet. Jake had it in his head at the time to become an international internet barbecue mogul. I worked on and off to get a site Jake was happy with, but he never quite got around to getting his barbecue site up. Some times I would come in and Jake would be all on fire to get the site ready, then I would be in a few days later and he did not want to talk about it. This went on for a few years until Jake just stopped mentioning the site to me. I guess he finally decided selling barbecue over the internet is not so practical.
Arnold was asking if I have seen the new barbecue restaurants over on Highway 57 toward Counce. I have not been out that way in a while and I said so. Arnold gets over toward Counce quite often and he said there are two roadside stops about a mile apart on the left as you drive toward Counce. One of them is called Hog Heaven and the other is Harry’s Pig Stop. These two places opened about a year ago and appear to be in hot competition with each other. They have a barbecue war going on. Arnold stopped at one of them about six weeks after it opened and ordered himself a barbecue sandwich. He thought the sandwich was right fine. The barbecue was maybe not up to Jake’s standards, but barbecue can be real good and still not match the barbecue Jake makes.
A few weeks later Arnold was over toward Counce and decided to give the other store a try. The barbecue there was also right pleasing and he saw a sign in the restaurant window that claimed the meat there was the best in the whole area and at better prices. Arnold noticed his sandwich cost him maybe a dime less than at the other restaurant a mile down the road. He was not certain of the price difference cos the price at the other restaurant had not made a major impression when he was there. He kept the price of the second restaurant, Hog Heaven, in mind next time he stopped at the first restaurant, Harry’s Pig Stop, to get a sandwich. The sandwich was the same price at Harry’s as the one at Hog Heaven, but a sign on the wall advertised “More Bar-B-Que for less, with all natural ingredients!” with a price for a half pound tub of barbecue. This kept up every time Arnold stopped to get a barbecue sandwich until he decided to bring the topic up as he was paying Harry for a barbecue plate. Harry was right indignant about Hog Heaven down the road. Harry said he had opened his restaurant first and George, the guy who owns Hog Heaven, was a regular customer at first, coming in almost every day and asking about the business, a real friendly guy. Harry was building up a loyal customer base and prospects were looking good when, a month after Harry’s Pig Stop opened, George opened his restaurant in an abandoned lawn mower repair shop down the highway. George began right away to try to undercut Harry’s prices and pull his customers away. George could sell cheaper than Harry, of course, because he uses inferior meat with more fat and gristle in his barbecue. Next week Arnold was in Hog Heaven and mentioned Harry’s Pig Stop to George who admitted to going in to the Pig Stop several times before he opened Hog Heaven. George is a barbecue lover and he had high hopes the Pig Stop would be a first class restaurant for barbecue, but his visits convinced him Harry did not know the first thing about making good barbecue and he cared even less. So George opened Hog Heaven so people in the area could enjoy real barbecue.
Yesterday, Arnold stopped at a Fast Stop convenience in Counce to fill up with gas and mentioned the barbecue wars to the guy who runs the fast stop. The guy laughed and said Harry and George are brothers from Memphis who moved over about eighteen months ago. They sell the barbecue in the restaurants while their wives prepare the meat in a little building about half way between the stores. The two brothers in cut throat competition are selling the same barbecue.
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