Sept. 24, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: With the passing of Otis Mead, I’m reminded of a time when I benefited from earlier Lexington storytellers.
My grandparents moved to Lexington in the 1930s, opened The Sandwich Shop, while my great uncle opened The Southern Inn. In the late 1970s, I spent the summer with grandma, and uncles Ted (owned the Paramount) and Tommy, while working for Jimmy Yeager on the DOT survey crew. Here’s a quick snippet of memories from that summer and before.
Fellow Greeks, Pete and Antoinnette Neofotis, owned the College Inn, where we’d spend hours listening to stories of Lexington and their journeys over from Greece. Clyde Mull bought the restaurant, was a good friend of Ted’s, and so the stories continued. Friday nights, Ted and I headed to a concession stand outside Kroger’s, thanks to a loaner car from Jimmy Shanner, where dinner consisted of three hot dogs and a soda, for $1! On Saturdays, we’d head to Howard Johnson’s for lunch, visit with Buster Moore who owned the property, and stayed so long that we ate dinner there too!
Ted helped cousin Alex and his dad George at the Southern Inn and upon closing, George would make us milk shakes as we watched Johnny Carson on the small TV, while also looking out the window “watching life walk by.” George and dad’s brother “Big” George were on Lexington’s 1938 undefeated football team.
Lastly, you couldn’t walk downtown at night without stopping by Snooky Walker and his wife, parked on Main, waiting to chat. Snooky’s brother is remembered with a plaque on the boulder by Wilson Field. I met Otis once, thanks to my friend Shane Gonsalves.
Stories wane, memories fade, but the moments never lessen. Thanks Otis, and tell Buster, and Snooky, and the others that I said hello. BILL MACHERAS Viera, Fla.
