Chuck Berry digs, Oct. 2025. (D. Hoekstra photo)
A few months ago, I drove by the empty Chuck Berry House on the near north side of St. Louis. The modest red brick home is where Berry wrote hits like “Roll Over Beethoven” in 1956 and “Johnny B. Goode” in 1958. The Berry house is at 3137 Whittier Street in the economically challenged Greater Ville neighborhood.
The Berry house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008, a rarity since Berry was still alive. Berry and his wife bought the three-room house in 1950 in what then was a middle-class Black neighborhood that included comedian Dick Gregory, [...]
David and Jackie on train moving day March 2002 (Courtesy of Jackie Gevercer)
My memories of David Gevercer are not singular.
I see him behind the bar at the Matchbox, shoulder to shoulder with some of the most engaging bartenders I have known. I see him greeting the regular Thursday afternoon floral delivery at the Matchbox, 770 N. Milwaukee in Chicago.
And most of all I see him with his wife Jackie, his forever Valentine. Their crowning cultural achievement was in March 2002 when they relocated a 1947 Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Silver Palm dining car on a 125-foot-long tractor- trailer from the Metra yards [...]
Part of exterior sign knocked down in a recent storm.
People can write about 24-hour diners in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Been there, done that. What’s most amazing about Bill’s Toasty Shop is that it is open around the clock in rural Taylorville, IL. (pop. 10,200.) Taylorville is about 30 miles southeast of Springfield.
Taylorville has gritty and feisty roots. My mom’s parents arrived in neighboring Carlinville and then Taylorville around 1920 after emigrating from Lithuania. My grandfather found work in the Peabody Coal Mines of the region. In April 1932, miners went on strike against the [...]
Tony, for my 2000 road compilation “Ticket to Everywhere.” He titled the book.
In early 1992, I took a road trip with artist-writer-friend Tony Fitzpatrick to Kansas City, Mo.
The weekend was covered by a grainy mist, but it did not compromise the light we discovered. Tony was making birch wood baseball cards .I wanted him to meet Buck O’Neil, the Negro League legend who in 1962 became the first on-field Black coach in MLB history when he was hired by the Cubs.
One evening, Tony and I went out for dinner in the Westport neighborhood. I knew of a good dive bar, but Tony did not drink. [...]
