Interview with Susan Tekmire, April 26, 2013

JEFFRIES: So anyway, just say who you are and what your name is--I'm, I'm sorry, what your name is, and where you're from, and where you grew up, and how old you are, if you want.

TEKMIRE: My name is Susan Tekmire and I've actually lived in Lexington since I was two, so I consider myself a Lexingtonian.

JEFFRIES: Yeah.

TEKMIRE: I came in, you know, 1966, and I loved growing up in Lexington. And as I went to UK and went through school--and I'm now--I'm, I'm a pharmacist, and I'm forty--forty nine years old, but when I was going through school, I worked in a Mexican restaurant here in Lexington. We only had two at the time, we had Chi-Chi's and, and Tumbleweed. And afterwards when we would close, we'd all go out at night.

JEFFRIES: Okay.

TEKMIRE: So we were college age and I loved café LMNOP. We went there quite often. And in fact--

JEFFRIES: The, the restaurant well you--where you were working was probably not exactly downtown, right?

TEKMIRE: No, it wasn't. It was off Clays Mill Road and we would go home, probably clean up, you know, go out for the night. We wanted to be 00:01:00someplace that was staying open later than we did after you took your last--

JEFFRIES: How did you--do you remember how on earth you sort of--I mean, there--I won't say there were lots of places to go, but there were definitely, you know--different people would go different places. Do you remember how you happened upon Cafe LMNOP?

TEKMIRE: We had an old matchbook at our house. So I had older siblings, so I imagine all of us at some point had heard of it or been there. I'm the youngest of four. And a lot of us were UK students even living close to Limestone or downtown so we would go downtown to dance or, or go to bars. And so with Café LMNOP, there was commonly a bar--or a, a band playing live music, so we would go. And that--what I can remember is going in that small front room, and I think they had pinball machines there on the left.

JEFFRIES: Okay.

TEKMIRE: And they were usually very well dressed up people in drag when you first came in, which may have been even Mr. Picklesimer.

JEFFRIES: Uh huh.

TEKMIRE: And then you'd go to the bar. And the bartender I loved, he 00:02:00had really cropped, short, bleached blond hair and--

JEFFRIES: That was Tom Bond. He was just in here a little while ago.

TEKMIRE: Really? He--

JEFFRIES: I think.

TEKMIRE: --he, he looked like he could maybe be a truck driver or, you know, a heavy mechanic, you know, lifter of big things and a muscular big guy. And he, he was well-endowed in the chest, better than even I, and he didn't wear a bra. He wore a white T-shirt, so you got to see everything and, uh--

JEFFRIES: Now wait, was this like a tranny or--

TEKMIRE: Yes.

JEFFRIES: Oh, never mind. It wasn't Tom then.

TEKMIRE: Yes. And he would always remember what I drank. I drank St. Pauli Girl at the time. So when I'd come in, he--you know, I'd see him and he would remember. And it was funny because I could not--I would maybe not be there again until the band would play. We would sometimes go see that band--

JEFFRIES: Two Small Bodies.

TEKMIRE: Two Small Bodies is what we would go see and dance in the back. And so, you know, I loved that place--

JEFFRIES: That's kind of magical. Like they would--he would--and the bartender would remember--

TEKMIRE: Oh--[unintelligible]--drink.--(laughs)--

JEFFRIES: --you felt, you felt maybe kind of sort of invisible, really, but the bartender would remember--

TEKMIRE: Uh huh. Mm hmm. And I always went to that bartender then. And then, you know, when I--I would look forward to if that bartender was there, you got to see that person, that same person. Because we didn't go every weekend, but we went quite a bit for some type of phase. I worked at that restaurant for seven or eight years. And we were a big family ourselves so we went out in groups a lot. And so, you know, we probably went through stages, but that was one place we went through for a long time. And then--

JEFFRIES: What was the--what are some of the--what were some of the, the qualities that sort of, you know, that, that made you love it so-- that made you keep coming back?

TEKMIRE: Well, you know, they had that heavy draped back section, and that great dance floor, and then that stage, and it was very open. And so it was kind of--you had the intimacy of the front and then you had that whole open great group room where it didn't really matter who was there or who you 00:04:00were with, it was just a group of people there to hear the same music or have fun together and--

JEFFRIES: Lots of people say that. You said--you say this thing about, "It didn't matter who was there. It didn't matter--"

TEKMIRE: And you felt extremely comfortable. I felt extremely comfortable whenever--in fact, I was excited to hear what happened--I think Bradley? Is it Bradley Picklesimer? That he's very successful out in, where, L.A.? And did like--

JEFFRIES: He's a party decorator.

TEKMIRE: --I want to say party decorator.

JEFFRIES: Uh huh. Yeah.

TEKMIRE: I think he did something for like one of the Golden Globe parties, he was doing--they had an article on him in the paper one time during--

JEFFRIES: Yeah, he's done party decorations for like Elton John. And the Malibu--he decorated the--this is one of my favorite things. Uh, the--something connected to the 50th--or maybe 50th anniversary of the--of Malibu Barbie. And he, he decorated this thing that they made called the Malibu Barbie Dream House, which is like a full size thing where they had this party and Bradley decorated that.

TEKMIRE: But it was, it was kind of like a little--to me, it was 00:05:00comfortable. You went in, and we enjoyed ourselves, and people remembered you and, um--

JEFFRIES: But you were like--you were kind of a--if you'll, if you'll pardon me, you were sort of like--kind of a--were you kind of a patron--sort of an outsider patron or something? I mean, like, you weren't--did you, did you ever like hang out or talk to Bradley or anything like that?

TEKMIRE: No. No. I think I would probably have recognized him from the group of good-looking people that were there when you would walk in that would hang around the front. And, you know--but we, we would walk in and just go to the bar, then we would go back to the back and dance. And so I wouldn't say that anybody else knew me, except that one bartender.

JEFFRIES: Sure.

TEKMIRE: And but I felt like--

JEFFRIES: Which is cool. You were one of the people--you were one of the patrons that supported LMNOP and weren't necessarily--needed to be part of like the big scene or whatever, but you and your friends loved to go there.

TEKMIRE: Right. Right. And then I would say later, "Oh, did, did anybody ever go--" you know, like, "Do you remember Café LMNOP?" And you know, 00:06:00people are like, "Wh--what?" And you're like, "Oh, it was this great place to go." And, and I want to say it's where you turn on Main Street now, the very first building kind of there on the right where those buildings are. Almost where Roxy's is and where A1A--

JEFFRIES: That's exactly right. I think, I think--

TEKMIRE: That's where I--

JEFFRIES: I've sort of triangulated it. I think it's about where Dunkin Donuts is.

TEKMIRE: Mmkay.

JEFFRIES: In, in--Dunkin Donuts being part of that chunk of buildings--

TEKMIRE: Yeah, that's--

JEFFRIES: --but I think that that's--I think that Dunk--where Dunkin Donuts is is about right where Café LMNOP was.

TEKMIRE: About where it was. But I, you know, I had that--when you know people that lived here and you talk about, "Did you ever go down there?" And, um, you know, I have a fond memory of it, though. And then when I read that, um--or saw this, we were coming down here already tonight, we were just--my niece is in town and so when I saw--

JEFFRIES: They tore it down, you know.--(laughs)--

TEKMIRE: They tore down what?

JEFFRIES: I'm kidding. Well I just--you said, "We were coming down here tonight," --(laughs)--and I'm like, "It's not there anymore."

TEKMIRE: --(laughs)-- No, we were coming down to--

JEFFRIES: So--

TEKMIRE: --to, to Louden House tonight just to see the art. And then I saw--(holds up card)--

JEFFRIES: Yeah.

TEKMIRE: --a statement about--

JEFFRIES: Oh, cool.

TEKMIRE: --Café LMNOP and I thought, "Oh, that's so neat. I'll be so excited to see someone else who actually remembered this, knew of this." And um, like I said, I'd love to find that old match, matchbook we had of it.

JEFFRIES: Did you ever see anything quite like it?

TEKMIRE: You know, it's quite--it was quite different from Johnny Angels or The Bar at the time.

JEFFRIES: Did you--you would go dancing at those places too?

TEKMIRE: I have been there, too. Uh huh. Because to me it had a different bar front. You know, it was a very short bar front. And, you know, it was more, um--I don't know--

JEFFRIES: You guys liked to go--I mean, what I heard you say is you, you liked to go dancing, you and your friends liked to go dancing--

TEKMIRE: I think--

JEFFRIES: --but you would also go see these kind of--these sort of like, you know, these sort of like indie, underground, sort of punk bands too.

TEKMIRE: Do you know, I don't know that I felt like there was that much out there. You know, you either had--what, what'd we have? Brass A or Austin City--(Jeffries laughs)--or downtown, you know?

JEFFRIES: Right.

TEKMIRE: I'm trying to think, what did we have? And I think we liked to center to the center of city or do something more close to campus kind of, but offbeat I would say. And we also looked for places that stayed open later. And it's funny having students now that work with me, I'll say at nine o'clock, "Well, go--" --or eight, "What are you doing here on Friday night? Go on, go home." And they'll say, "Are you kidding? It's eight o'clock. Who's out at eight o'clock? Nobody goes out till like midnight." And you're like, "Really?" And then you're like, "Oh yeah, you're right. What was I thinking? That's exactly what we did, you know." I was in my 20s. We, we closed down 10:30 or 11 o'clock, then, then we went out. And you had to look for places that stayed open later than you. And I think what was probably better there was I remember the live music more, knowing there was a band we weren't going to be down there. And, um, 00:09:00you know, a good friend of mine got hit on down there and then she said, "Oh, I'm with her." And I didn't know it, and she was hanging on me real f--and I was like, "What's up?" And she's like, "Well, you know."

JEFFRIES: This is a place that you could get away with that. You could do that, right?

TEKMIRE: Yeah, yeah. "We're together." "Okay." "We are--" you know, we, we joked about it.

JEFFRIES: And nobody would blink.

TEKMIRE: And--oh, yeah. So--and she was really pretty so she would attract--you know, a lot of people would always hit on her, so she'd be like--and there she'd say, "Well, I'm with her." So, um--

JEFFRIES: So what was the crowd like there?

TEKMIRE: Well, you know, it was, it was a lot of--we were, uh, we were a group of guys and girls and, um, you know, we fit in really well. But you went and you knew there was transvestites or there was mixed groups or whoever was with each other. And, um, I guess I never grew up very, um, prejudiced or feeling limited of who I loved or cared about. People were people and we were all 00:10:00friends. And so, you know, to each his own. So that's--I think that's how we were, you know, that we were raised. We were, we were a Christian family or whatever you want to say. But when we went down there, um, it was just people to--I--to me. I mean, I don't know, you know, how my friends felt, but that's how I felt. We were going for a dance and a good time out. It didn't matter as long as we felt comfortable, and it was a great time. And that's what it was to us, it wasn't a--you know, and I said--like I said, I lo--I wish to this day I knew who that bartender was because he probably wouldn't remember for anything--

JEFFRIES: That's not hard to find out who that was. I should even know right now, but I don't. Um, that's pr--but it was a transsexual?

TEKMIRE: You know, that's what I felt like because I remember, um, I remember thinking, "Wow." And so I just wouldn't--(laughs)--over looking at it.

JEFFRIES: No wait, it might have been--okay, I may have to scrap this 00:11:00from the record. It maybe wasn't a tranny. It might have been Becky Sturdivant, who was the bartender at, uh, um--she w--she played in, she played in bands. Anyway--

TEKMIRE: Would she have bleached blond hair, not wear any makeup, be very androgynous?

JEFFRIES: Yeah.

TEKMIRE: And almost--

JEFFRIES: And she was wearing like a fishnet like--

TEKMIRE: But, you know, I always felt like it w--d--in my mind, I felt like it was a truck driver man, a really tough guy and I thought, "Oh, he has a, he has a better set of breasts than I do."

JEFFRIES: Uh huh. That's hilarious.

TEKMIRE: And that's what I would think.

JEFFRIES: But everybody was--I mean, people--some of the people there were definitely sort of going for some sort of, uh, like really individual sort of thing, right? Like there would be--

TEKMIRE: Right.

JEFFRIES: --you would see people that were--everybody was definitely not trying to look like everybody else there.

TEKMIRE: No, no. And you know, I was thinking we would get fixed up and go out on the--night on the town, but we would dress probably the same as we did anywhere else. We didn't dress up or--

JEFFRIES: Uh huh. That's an important part of it too, though, because I've heard that from other people too, that it was totally fine to come and not be dre--you didn't have to--you didn't have to like, you know, come up with some insane getup. That lots of people went there just totally wearing just normal clothes like normal people, and they didn't feel, they didn't feel out of place either.

TEKMIRE: No, we didn't. And you know, we had probably one, um--there's probably only one of us--I was trying to think, there was probably one of us that was gay in the group that went down there. And I was trying to think if he--did he, um--was he the leader of the group to try to pick where we went or what we did and I don't, I don't per se think he was. I can't even remember if he was with us every night when we went down there, or how we got to going where we went going. But we all loved to dance. And we did--we had our own parties where we all danced together. So it wasn't, it wasn't out of normal for us to go to anywhere we could find good music, a comfortable place, a fun place. 00:13:00Not your--you know, we weren't into the country scene. We would go more downtown. So.

JEFFRIES: And downtown, downtown offered--what was it that downtown offered that--

TEKMIRE: Um--

JEFFRIES: What was it like in the early eighties? The sort of--

TEKMIRE: We probably still--we, you know, we felt safe to walk and be down there. It was small. You know, it was small, but it o--had different bars. And I was trying to think, um, I would say the Rosebud was maybe down there back then. Cheap--

JEFFRIES: The Bungalow at that point maybe?

TEKMIRE: It was probably called something else. You're right.

JEFFRIES: I think it was probably--I think it was called The Bungalow, then

TEKMIRE: I'm trying to think if Cheapside was even in there.

JEFFRIES: Cheapside I believe would have been there.

TEKMIRE: And then probably a bar that went underground, which may be where it is--what 310 Main? Is that what that is?

JEFFRIES: There's a place called Redmon's that goes down the stairs, but I've no idea. I don't know. I don't have any historical context.

TEKMIRE: Now I would say we went to the place that, um, the, um--what 00:14:00was it? The Penguin Piano Bar? What was that? Was that--

JEFFRIES: Oh, that, that wasn't anything. That building wasn't there. Oh, but--

TEKMIRE: Do you remember the--

JEFFRIES: Yeah.

TEKMIRE: Re--it wasn't Redmon's but it had an up--

JEFFRIES: Well, La--Larry Redmon owned it, actually--

TEKMIRE: Larry Redmon owned it. And it was that back upper part.

JEFFRIES: Yeah. Yeah.

TEKMIRE: That was probably there in the eighties--

JEFFRIES: And that was a big venue. That was a big venue.

TEKMIRE: --so we probably went down there. I remember that later, getting closer to the nineties going there.

JEFFRIES: Uh huh.

TEKMIRE: Where it was upstairs, downstairs. Two different bars. Two different, like, uh--

JEFFRIES: I think we're talking about the same place.

TEKMIRE: And it was more country upstairs. Kind of where J&H Army is.

JEFFRIES: Yeah, yeah.

TEKMIRE: That area.

JEFFRIES: I'm, I'm, I'm really blanking on the name of that--Breeding's.

TEKMIRE: Breeding's.

JEFFRIES: Breeding's. Is that what you were thinking of?

TEKMIRE: So Breeding's was downstairs, and what was upstairs? Was upstairs Breeding's? It had a back door. Uh--

JEFFRIES: Yeah.

TEKMIRE: --saloonish.

JEFFRIES: Well, the--I think the upstairs might have been called like Larry's or Redmon's or something like that. But yeah, I think it was Breeding's. Now what about like Great Scott's Depot? That's more of a punk rock place.

TEKMIRE: Do you know, I know that name when you say it now but I've 00:15:00never thought it and I--and never thought of it--

JEFFRIES: The Pralltown Café? That wouldn't have been a dancing place, that was a punk rock club. ReBop? Halle Lou? Those were both kind of--those weren't really--it sounds like you liked dancing places and those were--

TEKMIRE: Yeah, I think we probably were dancing.

JEFFRIES: So you mentioned Johnny Angels and The Bar.

TEKMIRE: Because we did go there. Um, you know, I even probably went there some in the nineties.

JEFFRIES: Uh huh. So it's funny that Café LMNOP seemed to sort of satisfy so many kind of different kind of impulses.

TEKMIRE: You could think, you could think you would felt uncomfortable and um, that you didn't feel like you could, um, fit if you weren't punk rock, dressed up, fit the venue so much, but I didn't feel that way at all. I mean, you know, maybe my first time there. I'm trying to think. But once you got back into the music room, and once you met the people that worked there, I didn't h--you know, it was more like a really comfortable, fun place to go and I loved 00:16:00it, so.

JEFFRIES: Well, thank you.

TEKMIRE: You're welcome.

JEFFRIES: Thanks for your time, I appreciate it.

TEKMIRE: I wish, like I said--

JEFFRIES: So you had, you had more to say than you probably thought you did.

TEKMIRE: --(laughs)--Well, I just think--

JEFFRIES: Maybe that's always the case.

TEKMIRE: I would like to see that--and I thought about it tonight when I saw you, and I thought, "Maybe he knows some--maybe you worked there, or you knew somebody down there." Now what made you--how do you know the Café LMNOP?

JEFFRIES: I am kind of a--I'm, I'm sort of like a cultural historian, but I just missed Café LMNOP.

TEKMIRE: Oh, you did?

JEFFRIES: Yeah. When--I moved to Lexington in 1986 and--

TEKMIRE: It was gone in '86?

JEFFRIES: Yeah. It was only open for two years.

TEKMIRE: Wow.

JEFFRIES: Which is kind of crazy.

TEKMIRE: That is crazy because my sister's seven years older than I--

[End of interview.]