Owen Tucker “Tick” Burden (1937-2019) abandoned his common law wife, Alma Tate (1940-1978), as soon as he heard that she was pregnant and did not return for going on twenty years, ten years after Alma had died. His son, Tucker Tate Burden (1968), Tick and Alma’s son, was then about 20 and working as a bartender in his grandmama’s tavern, the Candlelite Inn. The boy’s mother, called him Tucker but his father called him Tate, or affectionately, Tater. The boy preferred Tuck.
As soon as Tick Burden showed back up at the Candlelite, as was his nature began acting like some kind of boss, so Tuck, something of a chip off the old block, decided to do a runner, much like his father had done twenty years previous. And he too did not return from nearly twenty years which by that time, his grandmama was dead and Tick had been running the Candlelite all that time.
Tick’s long time waitress, Sally Ann Kirk (1972), and the sweetheart of all the male patrons of the Candlelite, always dreamed of inheriting the bar from Tick as some point, so she stuck around all that time. However, she and Tick had never been anything other than friends, Tick acting as a kind of stand-in father figure.
When Tucker came back, one night after drinking about half a bottle of whiskey, he decided to burn down the Candlelite. He didn’t much care if he burned up his father either. But just about when he was going to light the fire, Sally came out and they stood face to face, and that was all it took for them to feel they were destined for each other.
Tater and Sally fell into each others arms, began living as if they were married, and had two kids. Sally’s long time dream finally came true when Tick died in 2019, and she and Tater took over the bar. They went ahead and legalized their union, sold the Candlelite soon after and bought a nice house in Abilene, Texas – about 160 miles west, further down Highway 80 – where they raised their two children: Owen Edgar Burden (2009) and Ann Burden (2011), and grew old together.
LOCATION: Arlington, Texas; Abilene, Texas.
PERIOD: 2008-2019
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Tucker Tate Burden (1968); Sally Ann Kirk (1972); Owen Tucker “Tick” Burden (1937-2019), Alma Tate (1940-1978).
SALLY & TATER SELL THE CANDLELITE
(F. D. Leone, Jr.)
Summer air thick as molasses;
Moon hanging’ low around midnight.
Bottle of whiskey, box of matches,
Tater crept up to the Candelite.
Sally Kirk, a cute little thing;
The men all say she still looks alright.
Twenty years she held on to a dream;
While waiting tables at the Candlelite.
Tick Burden often talks about his past;
About his life, the ups and downs.
When he spoke of his son Sally asked,
“How come Tater don’t come around?”
Tick was sitting alone at the bar,
Going over that night’s receipts.
Outside there’s a passing car;
A soft rain falls on empty streets.
Tate poured the whiskey along the black wall,
Burning down the bar was the plan.
Threw the bottle like he throwed a football;
Cursed the match that bit his hand.
That same night, pretty late,
Sally was bringing out the trash.
She came face to face with Tate;
He froze, holding a lit match.
Neon shadows in the parking lot;
Iridescent puddles pink, green, and blue.
Tater cursed and let the match drop,
“Tick talked about a son, is that you?”
Ten more years the Candlelite was well lit,
Till Tick Burden died in 2019.
Sally and Tate decided to sell it,
Buy a big house in Abilene.
© 2024 Frank David Leone, Jr./Highway 80 Music (ASCAP). The songs and stories on the Highway 80 Stories website are works of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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