On the 11th Day of 340

On the 11th day we moved in … (play the video, while scrolling down and reading)



The structure, a veritable mansion, stretched from what used to be called 328 West King Street to where the 340 itself stood. Of course, the Post Office assigned 340 as its address. In fact, 340 Club was recognized as itself an address kinda like the White House or the Empire State Building. It had a rather large yard stretching through the rear of what used to be 8 properties with a beautifully done stone wall holding up Strawberry Street. The well manicured yard was impeccably maintained. There was a large Jacuzzi, a large deck, and plenty of space for the pets to roam. There also was a nice trough like cement apparatus that always had Listerine infused water flowing to provide a spot for male guests to relieve themselves if the need arose.

The mansion was set back, off KIng Street, but only six feet further than was standard in order to preserve the feel of the City streetscape. The magnificent front door was centered somewhere near where the Waxhaw Design showroom used to be. It was accessed by climbing a spectacular white marble stoop that had three steps and covered an area at the top almost 500 square feet and covered an area at its base of about 700 square feet. There were a chaise lounge and a hammock located on both sides of the magnificent porch. While we didn’t take any of those pieces in at night; nobody fucked with them, probably because some member could usually be found occupying them 24/7 in various states of sobriety. The structure itself was four stories high. As one entered the domicile, a spectacular 18 foot wide staircase caught one’s view and it led to the second floor. A prominent feature of the stair was the inclined chair on the left so that Mitch, at first, and others in the future could get to their sleeping quarters. The stairway rose in the center of a great hall wall which sunk behind the stairs, theatre style to a large screen. The screen was used for movies and other projection views. When the screen was raised a giant flat screen TV was present and it when it was raised there was a panoply of 9 separate TVs all triple stacked so one could watch 9 different shows at once. State of the art sound, lighting was available. There were five rows of very comfortable seats with two sets of eight seats separated by a short aisle on each of the top two rows. The first three rows could seat 12 persons each with four wing chairs on the ends and three coaches stacked back to back to back in the center.

Directly behind that magnificent TV/Living Room were two rooms - the Kratzert & the Martin - on the edges each with TV/Stereo and the like which intruded into what was a grand dining room which had a rollaway ping pong table that fell out of the front wall and then rolled into the center of the room. There was also a hidden sunken pool table that rose out of the ground. Rumor had it that there was a dining room table that descended from the ceiling that could be dropped for mealtime. I’ve never seen that but I’m told it exists. Unfortunately, at 18 foot it is not long enough to hold a decent sized hoagie so I suppose it is not a practical table.

Finally, behind the ping pong room, separated by a magnificent bar that ran the half the length (on the west side) of the room was a full service kitchen with much counters and cabinets, dishwashers, full toilet, walk in refrigerator with a walk in freezer. There was a separate refrigerator with Sil’s name on it as well as two refrigerators dedicated to the golden beverage which enclosed a full keg system which could be accessed from a tap alongside resembling a standard half keg setup and also at the sink which had a handle that could provide hot water, cold water and beer. Again, similar to that table in the dining room, I have heard people say that there was a state of art stove top and oven but I can truly say I never noticed. On the East wall of the ping pong room there was a state of the art dollar bill operated audio/video device that played the latest CDs, VCRs, XYZs as well as 8 tracks and LPs. Next to it was an old Rock Ola GP160 that looked to be about 1969 vintage and was a little worse for wear but that was totally rehabbed to sound better than its modern cousin or even the theatre sound system. Still, you could play Bette Davis eyes for a thin dime. The entire collection of 500 45s from the Mighty 340 Club juke box was present in a shelf next to the Rock Ola. The walls of the 340 were filled with a venetian blind like sound proofing material that could be kept closed so that you could hardly hear anything on the outside OR open if you wanted that old tyme 340 effect.

The upper floors were accessed by front and rail simple stair ways and by an elevator in the rear. There were 8 suites on each of the 2nd and 3rd floors which were fully self contained and autonomous; each with at least two bedrooms, bath, kitchen, living room.

On two at the front were Phil (who maintained his personal residence there) and Dan. Behind them were Chris (permanent addressee) and Dean, behind them Mitch (permanent) and John/Sue (permanent) in the way back was Slick and a guest room.

Simalarly on three, Sil and Timmy were at the front. Timmy lived in Jersey but would bring family several times a year. Behind them were RE and Dave (who moved in with his wife); then Randy (permanent) and a guest room (which pretty much went unused unless Ellen (my daughter), Beverly (my lady) or her sons or family were visiting, with Jimmy (permanent) and another guest room in the wayback.

I lived on the 4th floor, which could only be accessed by the front staircase, and was now truly a penthouse. There was a small Spartan room that looked as if it had simply been lifted from the ol’ 340. It was painted black. Walls, ceiling and floor. There was a mattress, a record player, a chest of drawers, a concessionary IT stand with PC, laptop portal, several book cases. In the one corner were a nice matched set of mahogany sticks each about 14 inches long and about 1 ¼” in diameter. The room behind it was smaller and seemed to have not been painted in years and contained all sorts of clothing, APBA boxes, records, a Giant bear, books, clothing, half eaten bags of potato chips, hangers, an inflatable doll, unused baseball tickets, an old 8 mm projector, and a Nestle’s Quick Box.

Sometimes the latch at the bottom of the staircase leading from the third floor needed to be hooked.