[AGL] Sarah from Dry Creek

[Harry Edwards]

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COMMENTARY: JOHN KELSO

Happy birthday, Sarah: Now please don't throw me out

Sunday, April 23, 2006
Sarah Ransom didn't look all THAT crusty Saturday afternoon when she 
celebrated her 93rd birthday at the Dry Creek Cafe, the beer joint on 
Mount Bonnell Road she used to toss people out of.

With a closing-in-on-elegant look about her, she had on pearls and a 
blue dress as she sucked on one Marlboro Lights 100 after another.

Then she opened her mouth. "He wants to put my picture in the paper so 
I'll have more boyfriends," Sarah said as a newspaper photographer took 
her photo. "I've put more boyfriends in a coma."

Boyfriends in a coma: We don't have a figure on how many of those there 
were, although Jay "Buddy" Reynolds, a former state representative and 
Sarah's son, says she's outlived four husbands.

"You want to be next?" he asked. No thanks. I just shined my shoes, and 
besides, I don't need the butt-whuppin'.

Sarah used to be what is known around these parts as ornery.

No longer, Buddy said.

"Mom's been borderline diabetic for the last 10-15 years, and I think 
all that cussing and everything else crept in then," he said. "We've 
got her blood sugar under control now, and now she's just a 
sweetheart."

This was not always so with Sarah, who now lives with a caregiver over 
in Lexington. Buddy brings her to the bar about once a month.

She opened the Dry Creek Cafe in 1956. A sign on a small brown critter 
taxidermied in the bar says, "I am a ring tail cat."

Over the years many may have thought the sign should have been hung 
around Sarah's neck.

"A friend of mine was wearing some striped shorts, and her comment was, 
'What circus tent did you cut those out of?' " recalled David Daniels, 
a longtime Dry Creek regular who drove all the way from Nelsonville for 
the party.

"One time, she tried to run Lance Armstrong off the road because he 
tried to pass her on his bike," recalled Cody Hudson, a customer and 
friend of Sarah's who sat at the table with her while she had her 
picture taken.

Nobody got much slack from Sarah.

"She hated Willie Nelson 'cause she said he came out here and bothered 
people with his guitar, and she told him to go put it in his truck," 
Cody added. "And he said, 'Ma'am, but it doesn't have any locks.' And 
she said, 'Well then, you better go with it.' And she kicked my father 
out of here in the '60s because he got too rowdy."

They say Sarah has a heart of gold if she likes you. They also say 
she'll eat your heart out if she doesn't. Not that most of the regulars 
care. The canings she doles out are part, if not all, of her charm.

"It seems like the more she abuses the public, the more they love her," 
said Bill Pacheco of Austin.

"She was my landlady for four years, man," said James Owens, who used 
to rent a house from Sarah at the bottom of the hill behind the bar. 
"One time, I had a refrigerator that burned out. I said, 'All it has is 
hot air.' And she said, 'Oh bull#$%^&; that refrigerator works fine. 
All you got to do is open the door and let the hot air out.' "

"One time, I was in here, and a young couple was playing pool," 
recalled Kay Hudson, who started coming into the bar in 1966. "The kid 
leaned up against the jukebox, and she yelled, 'Get off that jukebox, 
or I'll break your arm.' "

Yes, she's a real charmer. And I imagine next year, everybody will be 
back to tell more stories.

"The other day, she asked me, 'Do you think I am going to live to be 
100?' " Buddy said. "And I said, 'Yeah, if you start exercising and 
quit that smoking.' "

Hey, if she works out and quits smoking, she may start throwing people 
out again.