On this month’s cover is a picture of Dr. Tony LoBue of Crossroads Veterinary Hospital and his beautifully restored 1962 Willis. His dad purchased the Jeep new for $1,825 in Shreveport 47 years ago for his grandfather, Nick LoBue.
John LoBue (Dr. Tony’s dad) paid an extra $500 for the hydraulic dump package so Grandpa Nick could use the Jeep to haul asphalt to patch roads. John drove it from Shreveport to Patterson, N.J. where Grandpa drove it until the end of his life in 1995.
The Willis was in storage until Dr. Tony’s father gave it to him. The odometer shows 50,230 strictly original miles. The original paint was green, but Dr. Tony had Mike Carmena of Carmena Collision Service paint it bright yellow. Everything else about the Willis is original except for the wheels and tires.
Of course, nothing would do but to call John LoBue to talk with him about his Jeep on the cover of Central Neighbors. He told us the story above and then told us about his old pizza business in Shreveport.
Back around 1950 John LoBue was in the military, assigned to Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City across the river from Shreveport. On a couple of occasions he made pizza for his buddies (a never-before tasted treat for many of these Southern boys) and it was a big hit. When he was discharged in 1952 he rented a small 5’ X 5’ space and began making and selling pizza.
Business was great, so he began adding all sorts of Italian dinners to his menu. Soon he expanded into the Piccadilly Cocktail Lounge which soon became Piccadilly Pizza. “In a few years I bought the whole building and I went from buying cheese in five pound blocks to buying it in one-ton lots,” he said.
Asked why he never franchised the business like Dominos or Papa Murphy, he explained that he did have a couple of meetings with the Brookshire Food Store chain who wanted to feature Piccadilly Pizza in their stores. “It got too restrictive for me, so it never panned out.”
After this he and Dr. Tony’s brother opened a second store on the South side of Shreveport, but in the words of John LoBue: “If your heart is not in it, you need to be doing something else, and the boy’s heart just was not in it. So I told him let’s quit.”
Waxing philosophical for a moment he said, “You know, when I joined the military my dad told me you’re going to make your bed and you’re going to have to lay in it. If it is made of rocks or feathers that is strictly up to you.”
His visit to the Central Christmas parade last year and the sight of his old Jeep painted bright yellow led to a discussion of Cooking for Our Kids and all that has been going on in Central over the past decade.
“That is just wonderful. They are doing the right thing raising that money for their children and their children’s schools. That’s number one,” he said. “There is absolutely nothing more important than that.”
Well, that’s one self-made-man’s considered opinion. For our part, we can only add that we could not agree more. And, after just one phone conversation with his dad, it’s no wonder Dr. Tony turned out the way he did.