Murphy's

And Everything Else.
EastCoastSquarehead © 2006

Murphy’s is the place. Two pool tables and a great jukebox. It’s been the tavern where we all hang out for as long as I can remember. No one knows why Jinks decided to call it
Murphy’s. Over the years there’s been lots of speculation, even a few bets laid down. Jinks ain’t talking. Ask him once and he smiles, shakes his head and walks away. Ask him a second time, Jinks sort of growls. Nobody has ever asked a third time. If you knew Jinks you’d know what I mean.

It’s a red brick building, heavy old rafters run the length of the twelve foot ceiling front to back of what was once a garage until Jinks bought it back in 1971. Jinks lives out back in the one story two bedroom house that came with place. The first thing you notice when you walk into Murphy’s Tavern is the floor. Sixteen inch solid red oak planks, no stain, just natural. The planks are clear coated with a satin finish. You can just about see yourself in that floor, especially at closing time when the lights get turned all the way up. Everybody loves that floor. Must have cost a fortune for all that oak.

The red brick walls are painted white on the inside, covered with old pictures and beer signs. Outside it still looks the same. Jinks re-pointed all the joints, replaced the windows and doors but left the rest alone. The old sign painted right on the brick, white lettering over a black background still reads Bickle’s Auto and Truck Repair. A small wooden sign hangs over the front door that says Murphy’s Tavern in six inch letters. Yeah, it’s a cool old building. You can’t park on the street there. Jinks has ample paved parking to the right as you face the tavern. Over the years he purchased the houses on either side, tore them down and planted trees. Murphy’s is right in the middle of town but it feels like you’re out in the country.

Maybe I should tell you a little something about Jinks. His given name is Ben, well it’s Benjamin to be exact. Benjamin Robert Bell. He’s been Jinks since he was a baby. It seems that his grandmother had a thing for bells, all kinds of bells. Kind of makes sense when you think about it, being that their last name was Bell. When Jinks was just a baby he loved to play with a set of sleigh bells that his grandma had hanging on the kitchen wall. Jingle Bell is what they started calling him. As he grew up it just sort of shortened itself to Jinks. Seems natural enough I guess.

Jinks grew up out in the woods up in Potter County, he grew up hunting and fishing. He grew up fast and he grew up hard. Life was just like that back then. He turned eighteen in 1959. Jinks didn’t want to work at the sawmill with his father and he didn’t want to go down into the mines like so many others did. Jinks joined the army. He planned on staying there for twenty years. Vietnam changed all that.

Jinks never talked too much about his past, or his days in the service. Pepper told me about most of it, my father filled in the blanks. One thing old Jinks was always willing to share about his past was the time he spent in Germany. That’s where he met Helga. Germany is also where Jinks met The King.

An old black and white photograph hangs on the wall just above the cash register behind the bar at Murphy’s Tavern. Jinks and Sergeant Presley, arms around each others shoulders, cigarettes dangling from opposite corners of their mouths. Jinks is on the left
as you look at the photo. The two soldiers are leaning against a Jeep, mountains fill up the background. Jinks is proud of that picture and there are plenty of Elvis tunes in the juke box at Murphy's Tavern. Like I said, Jinks met Helga in Germany, they were married just two months after they met. Pepper was born in Germany.

In 1963, at the end of his four year enlistment, Jinks and Helga returned to the States with their brand new baby girl. Jinks re-enlisted and volunteered for airborne training. A promotion to Sergeant E-5 followed his assignment to the famed 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It was there at Fort Bragg that Jinks met the Green Berets. The Special Forces were a brand new unit at the time, Jinks volunteered for the Special Forces. He successfully completed the training. He survived the rigorous “Q” course and was sent to Vietnam as an advisor. Jinks spent two years over there, returning to the States in late 1966. He served for another year in Vietnam, 1968 through ‘69. He left the army after that. Pepper says she remembers her father’s return from his second tour. Pepper says he was real quiet for a long time.

Jinks moved his family back to Pennsylvania where his wife died less than one year later. Helga died from a heart attack. She was only twenty-nine years old. It seems that some type of infection set in, and she may have had a bad ticker to start with. If that had occurred now she probably would have survived. It’s just damn sad. Pepper says her mother was beautiful, says her mom was lots of fun. Pepper misses her mom. Jinks misses his wife. She was his one true love. Cherry blossoms almost always bring a tear to his eye. Helga loved cherry blossoms, she loved spring. He called her Blue, short for the German word bluhen, or blossom. His German was never that good.

When Jinks first moved his family back to Pennsylvania he did go to work in the mines, despite his misgivings about going farther underground than you’ve been out of town. He got a good job in one of the big union mines in Indiana County. The money was too good to pass up, he had a family to support. When Helga died he left the mines. He did not want to risk leaving Pepper all alone. Working in the mines can be dangerous. That’s an obvious understatement but miners are a tough breed, say any more than that and it sounds like your whining. Coal miners don’t like whiners.

So Jinks left the mines and decided to buy the old Bickle garage, convert it into a tavern. No one knows where he got the money, no one really gave it much thought. He was new to the area. No one really knew much about him at all.