“The Pause That Refreshes!”

I was in a hurry, as always. I’d meant to grab a candy bar before I left but in my haste to get rolling, I’d missed it. It’s five hundred miles from Port St. Joe to Nashville. The trip gets longer as I get older. My back and my stomach were both talking to me as I sped through Troy. The plan was to get a Grandma’s peanut butter cookie as soon as I stopped for gas.

My belly was in full revolt just south of Montgomery. There are not many “snatch and go” places in Pine Level, Alabama. I did see the Tin Top Café. My eyes went instinctively to the roof. And my foot involuntarily lifted from the pedal as my hands steered to the right. My body had been taken over by some foreign gastronomical force.

I was drawn to the Texaco sign hanging high on the wall. Folks were actually sitting out on the porch. The couple exiting with their two boys looked like Ozzie and Harriet. One of the gentlemen on the porch nodded and I swear he said “howdy” as I reached for the door. Good Lord, I’d entered the Twilight Zone!

The only waitress in the place smiled her good morning and “sounded” like she meant it. “I’m in a hurry, you got something ready?”

“We don’t do fast food. But I’ll speed it up for you.” She said THAT like she meant it! I ordered eggs and pancakes……figured it would be better than Grandma’s cookie. “Why don’t you look around while I get your food ready?”

The ambiance wasn’t great. The place was small. But it was neat…..and “wearable”. The old picture of the log trucks caught my eye. I guessed late twenties, early thirties; and each of the three trucks were hauling one log! You talk about a real tree! I leaned in a little closer. Each driver had on a long sleeve white shirt and a hat. Amazing times! I wondered about their families and if any of the well dressed loggers could still be alive. What would they have thought about digital t. v. and high speed internet? And how in the heck could they back those trucks up with that humongous torpedo shaped load? I studied the buildings in the background trying to catch a hint of the name of the town. I imagined myself strolling along in front of the drugstore in my long sleeve shirt and wide brimmed hat.

The walls were literally covered with a montage of old pictures, memorabilia, western posters……lots of rodeo stuff. I thought of my 1 and1/2 second bull ride. The fall lasted longer than the ride……and the bruised ego has lasted longer than the broken fibula!

The waitress picked out a table for me and sat my order down. I was reading the names written on some type of old legal paper. I had seen the waterfall before but I couldn’t place it. I re-read the rodeo program looking for Larry Mahan’s name. My food had cooled by the time I worked my way around the room and back to my seat. But it was still excellent. No prefabricated, frozen, one-size-fits-all meals here!

“How are your eggs?” One of the gentlemen from the front porch asked the question like if they weren’t just right he had a whole crate full of them in the back. I believe he’d a’had someone bring’em out until I was satisfied.

“Fine” I mumbled between bites as the owner of the Tin Top Café sat down.

“Where you from?”

“Port St. Joe, Florida”

“Oh, that’s just a little east of Cape San Blas.”

Robert Missildine asked about life after the paper mill. He worried about how the oil spill might affect us. And he helped me with my meal, “Try the Michigan syrup, it is really good. A friend up there sends it to me. He won’t take any money. I send him pecans.”

The pace here was good for my heart. It was the way God intended folks to break bread. I had a refill on my tea and leaned back and enjoyed the moment. My rush to get to Tennessee forgotten: the mad dash to the next assignment not such a vital concern as it was when I first spied the Texaco sign. Where does it say drive-through, whip-a-meal, instant oats and hamburger helper is progress……

If I had had a complaint, the proprietor was on the premises! What a concept!      

And I take back what I said about the lack of ambiance. On closer inspection the Tin Top Café was awash in it! You got up to pay and you felt like you’d been somewhere!

Maybe those people walking out as I came in were Ozzie and Harriet!

              Respectfully,

                    Kes