Retro Crossroads 0206

- This time on "Retro Tennessee Crossroads," Jerry Thompson meets the inventor of a three-wheel car in Manchester. Al Voecks shows you the best way to haggle for a brand new mule. I'll take you on a quest for the perfect boat, showcasing models that were popular in the late '80s. And finally, Susan Thomas takes us to a bakery on Jefferson Street that President Reagan was apparently a fan of. Well, that's the lineup for this episode of "Retro Tennessee Crossroads." I'm Joe Elmore, you're sure welcome. Well, I'm here with Becky Magura, and we're gonna be watching these segments from the "Crossroads" archives along with you, sharing our reactions.

- That's right, and I feel like we're gonna learn some things, really interesting things in this episode, so stay with us to that bakery piece. But my interest has definitely peaked, Joe, by the story on that three-wheel car.

- Well, we haven't met many inventors on the show over the years, especially one who invented an actual car. Now, this one may not have met DOT standards, but it sure made for an interesting story, especially the part when Jerry Thompson went for a ride.

- Well, in this day and time, where most everything is either done by computer or committee, they say the day of the great inventor is dead. There are no more Henry Fords or Thomas Edisons or Alexander Graham Bells, but if you believe that, I've got a fellow I want you to meet. He's August Dover of Manchester. He's been driving his invention for more than 40 years. It's a three-wheel car. He originally built it for his kids, but it quickly became his personal toy.

- I started that. I had a few airplane tail wheels in surplus back then. It was '46, right after the war. So I built this thing, and as soon as I run it, why, I went to turn over, and I knew that wasn't for them, so I started practicin' on it.

- [Jerry] And you just took it over?

- [August] Oh yeah, always been a show off.

- [Jerry] And he still is. A three-wheel car obviously doesn't offer enough excitement for Dover, so he just drives on two. Has it ever actually flipped over with you?

- [August] Oh yes, that's the fun. You see, it might look cute to you, but it's a vicious little vehicle, and I built it that way. It's always wantin' to turn over, and you feel that when it's gonna turn over where it is, and you just keep goin' as close to it as you can and keep it from turnin' over. And now that I'm 75, I don't like the pavement. It looks smooth, but you can understand, pavement rash is a pretty good deal.

- [Jerry] Behind every a great inventor, there's a courageous and tolerant woman. In this case, it's Dorothy Dover. She risk her toes to demonstrate how tight the car will turn and almost gets whacked by the rear wheel. But finally, the reward, a ride with her husband. Teenagers four wheelin' in a Jeep couldn't look more excited. What's it like living with a fellow like your husband all these years?

- Well, you never know what to expect next. When our children were very small, well, my neighbors used to say they didn't ever know when they were gonna see our oldest son coming up the road with a motor on his back because Gus put a motor on everythin'.

- [Jerry] Never a dull moment.

- Never a dull moment. He's always working on something. If it's not one thing, it's two others.

- [Jerry] Whenever Dover drives his car, it attracts a crowd. Leanna Fisher and her parents stopped to watch, then she took a ride. As long as she was on the high side, it was fine. She obviously didn't like it when it was leaning toward her side.

- No!

- How do you like that?

- Before I decided to go for a ride in it, I wanted to know more about it, how it worked. You got dual steering. This turns the front wheel.

- Right, and that steers the back.

- [Jerry] And when you turn the back, the whole motor and everything turns with it, right?

- [August] Right.

- And you just got one seatbelt?

- One seatbelt for the passenger. I don't use one 'cause I wanna move around a little.

- Why does that make me feel uneasy when I'm thinkin' about riding with you?

- Well, I always try to go down this side, so I land on the person.

- Oh, I see. And you want me to make sure I'm still there, huh? Well, I notice you got a panic button here.

- [August] Yes.

- What does that do?

- Well, when people, they holler, and I say, "Push the panic button," it doesn't do anything, but it always makes 'em feel better.

- I guess that's what a panic button should do. Well how about a little demonstration ride in this unique vehicle?

- No sooner said than done. All right, here we go. Oh man.

- Oh my goodness. Keep it on the ground, Gus, please.

- All right, we're gonna go a little faster now. Gotta get the speed up to get it up. Here we go.

- Oh my god, I got a wife and kids at home, Gus. I'd just a soon you'd set me down.

- [August] Right, here we go.

- Oh my, ah hell yes! I'd just soon have all four wheels on the ground, folks. What a mean four wheelin', not with three. How does the car manage to get a hefty fella like me off the ground with such ease? Well, after ridin' in it, I still don't know. I was too intent on holding on to try to figure it out.

- How was that?

- That's plenty, Gus, I think that's fine. This is not a Honda, a Ford or a Toyota. Those guys made plenty of cars, hundreds of thousands. August Dover from Manchester's only made one, this one, but I bet he's had more fun with this one than all those other guys put together. This is truly one of a kind and so is August Dover.

- Joe, I love that. One of the most interesting things for me was the lady. Her husband was the inventor, and she clearly had great faith in him because she stood there and just let him drive as close as he could her feet. That was crazy.

- She's either brave or crazy, I don't know which. Well, here's a story you might get a kick out of. It's all about mules and how to spot a good one. It's something we all need to know, right? Well, at least that was the plan for Al Voecks, when he trotted off to a mule sale in DeKalb County.

- [Al] Most of us are very proud of the animals we own. There is nothing finer than a good horse to give us hours of pleasure. Sometimes it's just a couple of cuddly friends that we cherish, but to a lotta country folk throughout Tennessee, there is nothing better than a good team of mules. That's right, mules, the hybrid offspring of a jack and a mare. In the days of automation, fast food, and untold convenience, there are still those who turn to the mule for some of the chores that need to be done. This part of the state is considered the mule capital of the world, and the buying and selling of mules is big business. Twice a month hundreds come to Alexandria to the DeKalb County Livestock Barn for the horse and mule sale. And a lot of experts are on hand. They know exactly what it's all about. What makes a good mule?

- Well, the way it's built, and the way it looks, and the way it carries itself.

- [Al] All right, is this a good mule?

- That's a good mule.

- [Al] How can you tell?

- Well, you can tell by looking at 'em. Look at them ears, the way he holds them ears, and see how them feets built and them legs. See how he's rounded off back there? He's a real mule.

- [Al] Why would somebody wanna buy this team of mules?

- Well, they's somethin' that you don't see every day, and they're somethin' to have and show 'em, work 'em, whatever you want to do with 'em.

- Yeah, but you don't work with mules in this day and age of the tractor, do you?

- Well, yeah, I work 'em. I got mules that I work at home, working the wagon, work 'em to turn the plow, plow a garden with 'em, pull wood out with 'em, log with 'em. It don't make no difference, just anything you want to do with 'em.

- [Al] What should this team of mules bring?

- About a thousand dollars or better.

- [Al] Most everyone agrees this is a pretty good team of mules, but there is a rather wide variance as to how much it should bring.

- Oh, that'd bring 5,000. I don't whether it will or not.

- 5,000?

- Yeah, they ought to. Good pair of mules like that. A good pair of mules like that ought to.

- [Al] Now it's important to determine how old a mule is. He can't tell you, of course, so it means that the mule has to put up with a lot of people pawing around his mouth and looking at his teeth.

- This mule will be a 4-year-old. This is five, coming six.

- [Al] Now how can you tell?

- Tell by their teeth.

- See this black path right here? And them 3-year-old teeth, that'd be leaving out at 6.5 year old. They'll be called a 7-year-old, And this other over here will be a 8-year-old when it leaves out. And you come on over here, I can tell 'til they get about 12-year-old.

- When he gets nine years old, he's smooth. When the mule gets 10 years old, his teeth start to yellow up at the top. But on the 10-year-old, it's just as wide right up here. Right here, they're just as wide as they are down here. When he gets 10 years old, they'll start narrowin' up.

- [Al] Once the sale begins, it's like any other auction. The action is fast and furious. There is no limit as to what is sold, but it is clear who the stars of the night are.

- Sell a pair of mules. You gonna split the up there. Gonna sell the mules now, then we going.

- [Al] It doesn't take long to get the bidding into four figures.

- [Auctioneer] 11 and a quarter got the job done.

- [Al] This team brings $1,125. A little less than some predictions, but Terry Blair says it was a fair price for a good team.

- Well, I just bought 'em sort of. We're gonna try to spread a few more out around the country here. We're going to try to save a few of these tractors and everything. I believe we all need to be going back to the mule days for a while.

- Did you have any intention of buying them when they came in?

- Yeah, really that good pair of mule was there that come in and I try to buy 'em back there in the barn, but I've got lots of people around here that's wanting to buy a good work mule. So I'm just sort of trying to get a few scattered out across the country around there. So we'll have more to fool with.

- Is there still a demand for mules, even with tractors and everything else going on?

- Yeah, really they need to go back to a lot of these mules instead of having a lot of these high-price tractors and the farmers be a lot better off.

- It was predicted that those mules would bring a thousand dollars and you hit it pretty well on the nose, a little more than that.

- Yeah, I think he brought about 1,125 or something like that, something about like that. But that's a pretty good price for 'em though. Maybe we can sell 'em a little higher the next time.

- This is a good team of mules and this team brought a pretty good price. They'll be on their way to a new home tomorrow. Everybody ought to have a good team of mules. If you're interested, come on down to the DeKalb County livestock auction every second, fourth and fifth Saturday. Pick yourself up a team. Incidentally, can you tell the difference?

- Joe, I think that Columbia might have a say in the fact that in that story, DeKalb County claimed to be the mule capital of the world.

- Yes, I would agree too, quite a bit. I haven't ridden a mule, have you?

- I have not ridden a mule, but I've actually announced quite a few mule pull contests.

- Wow, I'm jealous.

- Well, and I'll tell you what's cool about it is you can tell a good team of mules if they pull together. If they start that zigzagging, you're not gonna do anything.

- Thanks for the tip, Becky. You know, in the springtime, a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of buying a boat. Well, I guess things haven't changed much since we did this story back in the '80s. Well, except the prices, of course. Here's what happened when we made a splash at a Nashville Expo featuring just about everything that floats. Boating is a booming $160 billion industry in America. And you might be interested to know that Tennessee ranks in the top 20 in its population of boats. If you've been thinking about adding to those numbers with a boat of your own, here are some things to consider. First of all, how deep do you want to go into debt while still keeping your head above water? And then what kind of boat do you need for your favorite kind of activity? One of the favorite boating activities in Middle Tennessee involves a rod and reel. So to get some real facts on buying a fishing boat, we went here to a show sponsored by the National Marine Manufacturers Association. That's where I met TV Fishing star Babe Winkleman.

- See, I guess that kind of depends upon what you wanna do. Say that you want to be a bass fisherman and you wanna fish bigger reservoirs, that's one thing. Maybe you're a person that wants to go out with your family and take your kids out and you'd rather fish blue gills or croppy or something with them. That's a different kind of a thing. And yeah, you can buy a boat that's universal that'll float you around. But there are special machines just for bass fishing that you can get rigged out to do incredible things. If you're just gonna go out to enjoy the sport, heck, you can do it any way you want to. Anything that'll float, that'll get you there is fine.

- [Joe] Well, if you're tempted to price a new fishing boat like this man almost was, a fully loaded bass boat with all the bells and whistles is about 15 grand, luck not included.

- The biggest seller right now are your, let's say, 19 to 24 foot, right abouts.

- [Joe] Jamie Kariopolis says today's boat buyer chooses a boat with a crew in mind called a family.

- Your primary boat buyer is in the 35-55 age bracket. You find that boating is a family sport and recreational boating is something that is really enjoyed by family-oriented people. So, and a lot of times now we're finding that there's two incomes that play, have a factor on who buys the boat. And there's a lot more two-income families out there now.

- [Joe] Think your family would like this little number? It's a two bedroom, two bath, blue water coastal cruiser. If you're ready to plop down about 160 grand for this cream puff, this man wants to see you.

- It might be just an individual, it might be someone that owns his own business, might be a boating enthusiast that's come up through several boats and needs more room or whatever. There's no certain class that would buy the boat.

- [Joe] What kind of features does this thing have on it that might attract somebody?

- Well, mainly the spaciness of the boat. it's 59 feet long and it's 14" 6' wide and it has, as you see on the top, I have one personally that I've carried 53 people to dinner on one night, which makes for spaciousness. But it's powered by 454 crusader engines. It has central heating and air conditioning, of course, and all the amenities. So just like a cottage on the waters, what it really presents itself as.

- Go ahead. You can write it off just like a home and you'd only have to go home for supplies and to do the laundry. Well, forget what I said about laundry. Now, let's get down to Earth. With a simple little sailboat you can still have fun on the water while floating a much lighter note. As you can see, the choices are mind-boggling. But if you made up your mind to get a boat by this spring, well, you've got about two months to come up with a down payment. And if you come up a little short, there's always plan B. Make friends fast with someone who's already got a boat.

- [Boat Owner] Well friend, how do you like my new boat?

- [Friend] Great, just great.

- Joe, I love that segment you did with the boats. I mean, it is amazing how popular boating is in Tennessee, clearly. But boy, the prices have changed since that story.

- Yes, yeah, I know. I wish I'd bought one back then. You know, much has been said and written about the history of Jefferson Street in Nashville and about it's gone, but not forgotten landmarks, well, such as those popular nightclubs and other businesses. Susan Thomas discovered a business there called the Jefferson Street Bakery and how sweet it was.

- This is a special place of business in Nashville, a kind of flashback to days and years gone by. There are no microwave ovens, no food processors. Here, the charm that keeps customers coming back decade after decade is much more simple. It's that great taste of homemade cakes, cookies, donuts, pies and rolls. This is the Jefferson Street Bakery.

- My customers are few people, I would call 'em old timers. We still have a few people who just like homemade food. And the type of baking we do here is something between the bakery and the housewife. We are in between. So they can put up with that when they want something home baked.

- [Susan] Melvin Reed and his wife Eddie, opened the bakery back in 1949. They set out to make a living, have a little fun and be successful. And despite the construction of Interstate 40, which closed many small businesses in the Jefferson Street community, the Reeds have more than reached their goals.

- It started as a neighborhood business. It was a very nice business until they destroyed this neighborhood with the highway. Now we still have a few people, few families, and tell you the truth, now we have customers from all over the country. There was a man standing out there one day and my wife was waiting on the gentleman and he said, yes, said that these people sell things all over the world. And everybody laughed. And so there was some truth about that at that particular time. She packing the box for Germany.

- How have you stayed open when so many other small businesses have folded over the years?

- I don't know if I have the answer for that, but someone told me, and this is just somebody speaking, I don't know whether they're telling the truth or not, they say that somebody's gonna always want to eat. So I don't know if that's the secret of it or not.

- [Susan] Whatever the Reed's secret of success is, one thing is sure. It didn't happen without a lot of hard work.

- You have to work. Business, when you look at it from the outside, you say, well, everybody there is happy and looks like doing so well, but you have to treat a small business just like you would a baby. You have to attend to it every day.

- [Susan] After all the years of cooking in the same building and even on the same stove, does Reed ever get tired?

- Oh no, I don't really get tired. You know, the body wears out, but I enjoy baking. This is the only thing I did all of my life. I've never had another job. And I was talking to my wife a few days ago, I said, well, maybe baking is not so bad after all because I only remember three days in my life from the age of 19, and I'm not telling you how old I am now, that I didn't have a job. So I just like to bake, enjoy it. I'm still learning.

- [Susan] A lot of folks in Nashville have heard about the Jefferson Street Bakery, but word about the good hand-baked goods has traveled all the way to the White House and to President Reagan.

- This is when he was running for his second election. For some reason they told us about it and told us to get prepared for the day that he would be coming. That after he went to Meharry and on his way back to the governor's manion, he would stop here and pick up a pecan pie for Nancy. But he didn't come, but somewhere, I don't know how this happened, he found out about the little small place and a week or two we got this letter from him congratulating us.

- [Susan] What did you feel like when you got a letter from the president?

- Well, I didn't know how to feel. The fact that taking a long time for, I realized it was really important, but now we prize it very much.

- [Susan] It's not the letters from presidents that keeps the Reeds coming back to the bakery morning after morning, year after year. It's the pride in knowing that they have made their dream come true. And they have no plans at all to leave it behind anytime soon.

- I'm just gonna stay here until I can't stay no more.

- Joe, I love the revitalization that's happening in North Nashville, but these stories are so important. What a great story about the Jefferson Street Bakery.

- Well, hopefully we'll see more progress like that in the future.

- I hope so.

- Well that's gonna do it for this edition of "Retro Tennessee Crossroads". We appreciate that you joined us for our journey through time and Tennessee.

- Absolutely, and remember, you can watch "Retro Tennessee Crossroads" or any of our local shows on demand anytime with downloading the free PBS app.

- Absolutely. Well, until next time.

- We'll see you then.