It Was The Eggs That Killed Uncle Dick

George Delbert Skinner was my grandmother's Uncle Dick. He owned the Wagon Restaurant in Orlando where my grandmother worked when she was a teenager in the 1910s.

Usually when I ask about Uncle Dick someone says, "Ah yes, Uncle Dick was a ladies' man." Seems to me like an odd thing to be remembered for. I recently visited with my third cousin, once removed, Earl Skinner (Lawrence, Marcellus (Pappy), Jackson McWorter, Alexander) at the Skinner Cafe in Weston. Earl knew Uncle Dick, so I asked about him. He said, "Ah, yes. Uncle Dick was a ladies' man." He went on to tell me what he could remember of Uncle Dick.

Earl says Uncle Dick lived in downtown Orlando with his mother, Patience (DuVall) Skinner, and cared for her until her death. He never married.

Don't know when Uncle Dick quit working at the restaurant, but Earl says in his later years Uncle Dick lived alone and ate eggs for every meal; breakfast, lunch or dinner, Uncle Dick would break the eggs at the kitchen counter and toss the egg shells out the window. Earl tried to recreate the sceene he faced when he went to clean up Uncle Dick's place after his death: the condition of the shack, the extraordinary pile of eggshells outside the window over the sink, but words failed him, which is something that doesn't often happen to Earl. At any rate, Earl, busy flipping burgers at the Skinner Cafe Grill, went on to point out that Uncle Dick was proof that eggs will kill you. It took 90-some years to do in Uncle Dick, but they finally did.

Top right: Uncle Dick's restaurant ca. 1915.
Lower left: the Weston eatery that Lawrence's sons run, where Earl Skinner comands the grill during lunch hour.

See also
2/15/06 Dick Skinner's Restaurant -A Family Affair
2/24/06 Orlando Businesses Over the Years
10/06 The Bear Trainer