The Ranger Online

Issue date: 5/18/06 Section: J School Travels

Media Credit: Julie Ann Sanchez Tammie Blood co-owns and is the namesake of the only open business in the East Texas town of Sabine Pass.

SABINE PASS - A figure dressed in a French military uniform talks to children and watches over the patrons of Tammie's Olde Tyme Diner. He plays tricks on workers - opening windows, throwing plates across the room, turning on ceiling fans - and gazes up at the stars at night.

But the diner's resident ghost, dubbed Joe, hasn't been back since Hurricane Rita flooded the family restaurant.

"We haven't seen him since the storm," Tammie Blood, the diner's namesake and co-owner, said in an interview Dec. 26. "I think he was mad that we left him behind."

Joe first appeared Oct. 8, 1992. He was standing outside the diner staring at the sky. The Bloods thought he was an early guest, but when they opened the door several times to let him in, they realized no one was there, according to the restaurant's history printed on the back of their menu.

After that first sighting, Joe reappeared several times, mostly to children.

Children seem to be having a conversation with themselves, but when they are asked who they are talking to, the children often reply "that man with the funny hat," Tammie Blood said.

The diner closed its doors for about seven weeks after the hurricane. Instead, the proprietors served hungry denizens of Sabine Pass through a to-go window. Today, it is the only establishment open for business in the town of about 500 located on the Gulf Coast about 32 miles south of Beaumont.

And it's a good thing the diner is open - with or without Joe.

With residents living in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, families don't want to have to cook and clean for meals, Tammie's husband, Kirk Blood, 30-year resident and diner co-owner, said.

The diner served Salvation Army meals for breakfast and dinner from two 18-wheelers of donated food. Meals were anything that could be made in bulk, such as spaghetti.

Only Sabine Pass residents with an identification pass were allowed to pick up meals from the diner. Kirk Blood, who has co-owned the restaurant for five years, said he didn't need to see the passes.

"It's such a small town," he said. "We already know who they are."

Before the storm, the town's population was about 700, but it dwindled when some families didn't return.

Continued...

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