Buffalo Roaming: Back Home to Spartanburg with My Buddy Tom

Monday was a Spartanburg kind of day.

My friend Tom Whitten, originally of Boston, currently working out of Cleveland, flew down for a day and a half visit, and we made a serious day of it. You could say it was a “Marshall Tucker Band Day.”

We left out of Greenville, heading north to my old hometown of Spartanburg. Plans were set to visit some old friends, drop by the cemetery to see George McCorkle’s new marker and pay our respects, and do a little MTB trivia “site seeing.”

As we made our way down I-85, I took out the call and dialed up Doug Gray. I wanted to make Tom’s visit a real “Tuckerized” day. He tells me he only discovered the band a few years ago, but nowadays he is a major Tuckerhead. I got Doug on the phone. He and the Tucker Band had just returned from a show in Florida, and they were heading over to the Beacon Drive-In for lunch. I put Tom on the phone with Doug and they chatted for a bit. It was great to speak with Doug, and I told him I’d see him soon at the Angelus in Tampa.

We made our way to the Flatwoods Soap Company, owned and operated by Jerry Eubanks and his girlfriend. Jerry was a founding member of The Marshall Tucker Band, and his shop was formerly located in Spartanburg, but recently relocated up the road 12 miles near Boiling Springs.

We stopped in for a visit with Jerry, and had a great time reminiscing about the MTB, and talking politics and world issues. We had a seriously great time, and I was able to leave with a couple of bars of their fabulous hand made soap. Man that stuff smells good!

Leaving Jerry’s, we drove over to the Greenlawn Memorial Gardens in Spartanburg to pay our respects to my buddy George McCorkle. I had not been there since his funeral, and after what amounted to the equivalent of an Easter egg hunt, we found George’s grave.

The family has placed a truly beautiful marker on the grave. I stood over it and sang some of George’s music, said a silent prayer, and told his spirit how much I miss him. It was a little emotional to be sure.

Next we visited the graves of both Toy and Tommy Caldwell to pay our respects. Greenlawn is not only the final resting place of our three Tucker boys, but many family members like Toy and Virginia Caldwell, and Toy and Tommy’s baby brother Tim, Doug Gray’s parents and other family. It’s a beautiful cemetery, filled with equally beautiful statues of Biblical figures.

When we left Greenlawn, we made our way over to the World Famous Beacon Drive-In. This restaurant has been a part of my life since I was a child, and in high school, we used to cruise the large parking lot. Oddly enough, many of the Tucker Band did the same thing during their own 1960s high school days. Doug Gray used to lay on the hood of his pink Mustang on Friday nights, talking his best line to the passing girls.

Now, if you’ve never been to the Beacon, it is an experience. I won’t even try to explain it in mere words. Just be ready when you step into line, that’s all I can say. The Marshall Tucker guys have always been tied to The Beacon. Everyone knows how much the band loved eating there when they were at their height of fame, and I have been told by several sources that when Toy Caldwell came home from Vietnam, the first thing he wanted was a “Hash a Plenty” from The Beacon. It was always his favorite. A “Plenty” is a sandwich on a plate piled high with massive amounts of greasy onion rings and fries. The good stuff.

Tom and I enjoyed our Beacon meal, and then it was time to point Tom’s rental car in the direction of our mutual friend, Jim Brown. Jim is a dear old friend of mine, and a music nut like me. He grew up with Marshall Tucker, and most of the band were always good friends with him. He was also close with Gov’t Mule, especially the late Allen Woody and members of The Grateful Dead, Derek Trucks, you get the picture.

On the way to Jim’s, we dropped by Paul Riddle’s studio, only to find he had moved his drum lessons to Greenville. But our stop over was not in vain. We heard drums, opened the door, and found Dave Haddox in there teaching a student. Dave is another old friend who played drums in my band for many years. He was Paul Riddle’s original drum teacher, and had drummed for Soul Survivors, Tom T. Hall, Billy Crash Craddock, Stonewall Jackson, Bill Anderson, Mighty Clouds of Joy... I still say Dave is the finest drummer I ever played with, It was great to see him, if only for a few moments.

It was so cool to see Jim and his wife Susan again, and we checked out pictures of his grandson, the child of his son Travis and his wife Michelle. Travis used to play guitar in duet with me. Ah, the good ol’ days.

Pretty soon, I was playing Jims Paul Reed Smith guitar, the Santana signature model, and Jim got on the Djembe. We had a little fun jam, and Jim taught Tom a few chords on guitar, while I played with Jims two sweet dogs.

Pretty soon it was time to head back to Greenville. It had been a busy and fun day, and a blast seeing so many old friends. I would get home and crash, only to meet Tom once again Tuesday morning before he caught the flight back to Cleveland. We tried but failed to hook up with Paul Riddle. If we had, we would have visited the entire original Marshall Tucker Band in two days, in one way or another. We’d have to catch Paul T. on Tom’s next visit. Still, we had ended up with a MTB theme we had not even planned on. Pretty cool.

Keep it Real. Keep it Southern,
Buffalo

RETROSPECTIVE

ROAD HARD - Jerry Eubanks' old road case.

TOM & JERRY - Tom Whitten and Jerry Eubanks

GOLD IN THEM HILLS - Jerry's gold record awards.

ST. JOHN - Tom says he looks like a chick. (Not that there's anything wrong with it.)

MEMORIAL FOR MY FRIEND - KG's final resting place. Sure do miss him.

Toy's marker.

Tommy's marker.

BUFFALO HUT COALITION REUNION - Buff and Dave Haddox.

URBAN LEGEND - The historic Beacon.

GREASE IS THE WORD - The Beacon's chili cheese a plenty.

PEAKIN' AT THE BEACON - Tom finishes off his Beacon meal.

MAGGIE - One of Jim Brown's cool doggies.

COWBOY HAT - Jim Brown and Tom. Tom is wearing Toy Caldwell's hat that that he wore on the Just Us album cover.

LESSONS - Jim teaches Tom "Can't You See."

SAX MAN - Buff and Jerry.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

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