Lester Swindell

I guess I first met Lester back in the late 50's, he ran a little cafe in Bell City. Back then Bell City School had an open campus and everyone got to leave campus and go up town and get their lunch. Back then the old town was booming. At lunch all of the towns cafe's became real busy. Then the people elected some very intelligent people to run the local school and they closed the campus and forced the kids to eat in the school cafeteria. This act helped kill the downtown area of Bell City and caused some of the businesses that depended on this trafic to close. This is one of the worst things to happen to a small town. Anyhere it happens the same results take place. No hustle and bustle and soon no thriving downtown. Well documented. Anyway enough politics.
Lester and Wanda, his wife had the best bologna sandwiches in town, everyone ran up town to get one of these sandwiches which I think at the time cost a dime and a soda for a nickel. This made a good lunch. I know a lot of kids at the time that enjoyed this linch. Lester also had pinball machines a juke box and repaired shoes in the back of the cafe. He also had an afternoon paper route, him and his boys David and Keith would deliver the paper all over town. Lester did whatever he could to make a living in a small dying town.
I guess this is the first place I met Jake Fisher, the same Jake I have written about in another story. Jake would come over to Lesters and order a cup of coffee. He would tell Lester or Wanda to fill his cup full because he didn't use cream. Jake really enjoyed Lesters coffee.
Lester was one of the oldtimers, he wasn't a mean guy but would fight at the drop of a hat. I never witnessed him fighting but from the talk of the older guys most people knew he was pretty tough.
A lot of us that considered Lester an old timer are now getting to that stage of our lives.
Lester and Wanda had three kids, as mentioned before two boys David and Keith. They also had a daughter Sharon who sadly died early in life. This was one of Bell City's older family"s. Not to many left these days.
I only live about 15 miles from Bell City and nowdays I don't know half of the people that live there. NEXT GENERATION PLEASE