Big John's Pickled Sausage

Ben at a bar: Let us raise a glass to the Eleven Mile Tavern, days away from destruction, the latest sacrifice to cars and asphalt in this ever-expanding area.

Here's to 1885, the year these boards were nailed together on a patch 11 miles from Plant City, 11 miles from Tampa. This place was all woods and dirt roads then. The Pony Express watered up outside.

Here's to the building's past lives, the feed sacks and postage stamps and drip coffee, to the ham and potato salad, to Santa Claus on Christmas morning.

Here's to the couples who met by the pool tables and the enemies made on bar stools. To the jukebox that carried David Allan Coe, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Patsy Cline, to the Tums on the shelf…