By Ben Joravsky
Yet Bacon’s still flourishes. Butch Bacon says he met many of his customers more than 30 years ago, when he was a teenager growing up on the far south side and working at his father’s store on weekends. “I used to dream about playing baseball, but that wasn’t going to happen–I wasn’t gonna make that basket catch like Willie Mays,” he says. “So when I graduated from Carver [High School] I came down here to work full-time, and I’ve been working here ever since.”
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His friends joke that Bacon’s like a sphinx because of his deadpan manner and poker face. Most of the time customers can find him behind his desk in the far corner of the store, a perch that allows him to see everything in the showroom. A bell buzzes when the door opens, so Bacon sees everyone who comes by. Most of his customers walk over to say hello.
Over the years, they’ve sold to many celebrities. “We used to sell the singer Donny Hathaway those big apple hats he favored,” says Butch. “Sidney Poitier once bought a hat. One day Steve Harvey pulled up in a big white limo and bought himself a hat. Jimmy Spinks used to come by here all the time before he passed. You remember Jimmy–he was in Car Wash.”
Butch Bacon remains characteristically unfazed. He says there’s been talk of the project for years, and yet the area remains underdeveloped–if it’s coming, it’s not coming very fast. “I talked to the alderman, and she said, ‘Butch, you don’t have to worry,’” he says, referring to Dorothy Tillman, a major booster of the development deal. “I don’t plan to worry either. I don’t want to move. I plan to stay.”
“Oh, yes. I’ve been dieting. I’ve been drinking that Slim Fast, man. These pants were once skintight. Now they’re falling off of me.”
“That said, Reverend Jackson is flesh and blood–and one of the greatest prophets, David, was involved in adultery,” Hodges went on, his voice rising as if he were addressing a congregation. “The greatest thing the Bible taught me is recovery. Restitution is one of those things that shows us that God restores us.”
