Nelsons Lauver Ada Lyrics

Nelson's favorite story. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Ada Snyder!

Text Version of Audio Story: Ada
You have to wonder just what keeps that old building standing there along
Routes 11 and 15 near Liverpool, Pennsylvania. At the one end of the tiny building,
there is a big pile of fire wood. On the other side of the building, there's a rickety carport
with an old car in it covered with years and years of dust.
On the front door, there's a few signs. Just a regular old piece of copy paper makes up
one sign. In magic marker it reads: "Step Back into Yesteryear." And then, there's all
the other standard signs scotch taped to the front door that say things like "No shoes,
No shirt, No service;" "Be Prepared to Show ID;" "No One Under the Age of 21."
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Ada's Country Bar. As you go through the door,
you can't help but notice a good kick would probably take it off its hinges. The linoleum
on the floor is pretty worn. There are eight bar stools and about four or five tables.
There behind the bar is Ada herself.
"What can I get you young man?"
"Well, I'll have a bottle of beer and the bigger bag of those red hot potato chips."
Even though Ada is legally blind, she doesn't have any trouble telling the difference
between a ten and a twenty. She puts it under her big magnifying glass. She does all
the math in her head.
"Let's see, $1.50 for beer and $.79 for chips, that's... $2.29, and six percent for the
governor, $2.43 out of a twenty. This change makes three. Here's four, five, ten and
twenty. Thank you very much."
On the bar are old sardine cans for ash trays, and up there on the wall behind the bar
is a sign. It reads, "No swearing or vulgar language in this bar." Ada said she had to
put that sign up when the construction workers - or the cement men, as she calls them
- were around.
"Every other word out of their mouth was the F-word. I had to put that sign up there,
and then it stopped right there and then. I guess now that they're done with the road I
can take it down."
©Copyright 2007 Nelson Lauver. May not be reprinted, reproduced or published without permission.
Text Version of Audio Story: Ada-page 2
The road construction pretty much cut Ada off from the traffic that she used to depend
on for customers.
"Oh, there's locals yet, but it's even hard for them to get to me. I guess the state would
have bought me out, but I didn't want to go. I've been behind this bar for forty-seven
years. This is my life. This is who I am and what I do."
Ada never really had much trouble in her bar. The locals all call her mom.
"Anytime I ever had trouble with someone, I'd just tell them to get and they'd go, except
for that one guy who got unruly. I had to hit him with my club. He went down.
When he got back up, then he got to gettin'. Never saw him again."
Ada doesn't drink alcohol.
"My second husband, he drank enough for both of us - and smoked enough too. He's
dead since 1971."
On this particular day, Ada isn't sure if she's going to bother to load the crock pot with
hot dogs and sauerkraut. All the cement men are gone now, and with the road cutting
her off like it did, she just doesn't think anyone will be around to eat anything. Her CB
radio behind the bar keeps her company. She talks to the truckers who whiz by and
rattle her windows. They can't get off the highway to see her anymore. There's a little
access road to get into her bar, but it's a half mile back up the road.
"Things have been pretty slow around here, but I am going to try to make it go. I have
enough firewood to get though the winter."
At the time of this writing, Ada Snyder is ninety years old.
With the music of Johnny X, I'm the American Storyteller.
©Copyright 2007 Nelson Lauver. May not be reprinted, reproduced or published without permission.