I have been asked not to attribute this story. Here's how it went at Earl's Village Tavern. This was at a time when there were many, many more bars in Saranac Lake than there are today. It was at a time when a beer cost a quarter and taxi cab fare was 50-cents. Among the local public house aficionados, there were a number of stalwart souls who enjoyed the sport of making their way -- bar to bar to bar -- from one end of town to the other. Owned and operated by Earl Catillaz (uncle of former Mayor Tom Catillaz), Earl's Village Tavern was the next-to-last bar inside the village limits if you were moving north on Broadway. Big John Peria and a bunch of the boys had just landed at Earl's, and John was holding forth about how he was becoming more than a little weary of Bill McLaughlin, Sr. (the man who gave me my first darkroom lesson) conning quarters from him to slake his thirst. It wasn’t that Mr. McLaughlin -- who some called the Silver Fox – ever asked John directly for money to feed the till. There was always some other angle; or John ended up feeling like he wanted to pay the tab even though it was Bill who was offering to buy the round. Well, it wasn’t going to happen again! Just then a taxi pulls up in front of Earls, and out steps the old Fox himself. He enters the Tavern and says to no one in particular, “Somebody give me half-a-buck.” -- all the while the cab idling in plain view at the curb. Big John forks over the four bits. Bill thanks John, turns and motions to the cabbie to leave, plunks the bright coins onto the bar and says to Earl, "I'll have two beers, please." Earl's was located at 138 (now 139) Broadway from 1950 until 1980. The building had formerly been occupied by Fuehrer's Pharmacy. It has since housed the Foote Rest Café and, now, Eat and Meet Grill and Larder. Of all the buildings presented here, this one has – at least externally -- changed the least.