Saturday in CinCity

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It's not a rainy day, but sure feels like one with the sun peeking out from grey skies and water rushing down the streets. I've been driving Miss HoneyHaired around town and across the river. Saturday's a good day for lessons and since Hubby works the weekends it's "GRLZ ONLY." Our own Gruesome Twosome Club today with no boyz allowed, no makeup. Work-out clothes required.

One of the college stations is on the radio playing a great version of Trouble in Mind and HoneyHaired is telling me about a new song she likes--Are we Humans Or Are We Dancers.

We discovered a fantabulous diner across the river, The Pepper Pod. Breakfast 24/7. The kind of place where you gotta pay when you order if you're there between 11pm and 6 in the morning. HoneyHaired got the Hungry Man's Special with extra bacon and hash browns, although goetta is an option. Smoking's allowed in the restaurants across the river, and I must admit I enjoy seeing people still being able to sit down at a lunch counter ordering a cup of coffee and having a cigarette. The waitresses all smoked. They're of an age to have a pretty significant cough with it, but what the hell.

We weren't there thirty minutes without hearing at least four people talk to the cashier about being out of work now. Company closed down, got laid off, got fired. She said,"There's been men coming in wearing suits wantin' to know if there's any positions open. Cooks, dishwashers, anything." It worries me. I've heard the economic pundits say that it's going to get worse before it gets better and I believe them. I've heard their tone before only it was me saying it to a patient's family and I knew how much worse things could get. So, I believe them. And, I left too big of a tip. Maybe that can trickle down, too, with the rest of this melting snow.


"...Trouble in mind, I'm blue But I won't be blue always, 'Cause that sun is gonna shine in my back door someday..."


please note: art by Peter Brown, music by the incomparable Aretha Franklin

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2009 at 4:25 PM

    Bless your heart for the big tip.
    XOXO

    ReplyDelete
  2. LydiaFebruary 7, 2009 at 7:16 PM

    This read like piece of Fitzgerald or that ilk. Great stuff, and I'm not speaking of the economy. My husband works for the State of Oregon and last week his office was told there will definitely be 10% cuts, maybe 20%, and "no one is safe." And that's just the beginning of the year......

    ReplyDelete
  3. LydiaFebruary 7, 2009 at 7:16 PM

    p.s. I really like that ..."or are we human" song too. It's a stand-out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. La FraméricaineFebruary 7, 2009 at 9:05 PM

    Many of the most precious memories I have of my mother are wrapped up in days spent having breakfast at a diner in Tulsa, OK, Dallas, TX, or San Jose, CA and driving around running errands.

    This was a superb piece of writing, made all the more attention-riveting by the juxtaposition of the coziness of a mother-and-daughter outing and the whispered threat of worse news looming.

    Powerful prose, ma chère Distracted.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownFebruary 8, 2009 at 10:03 AM

    Thanks all...does anyone else see the resemblance between the young Aretha on this album cover and Beyonce??

    ReplyDelete
  6. aimsFebruary 8, 2009 at 11:04 AM

    I see the resemblance but keep reading that Etta James can't stand Beyonce who sang her song for the new president.

    Tell honeyhaired to have an ear out for the new song 'Bleeding Love' by Leona Lewis - it's a wowzer too!

    You can click on a link in my own sidebar under Words for how we feel now to hear Are we Human .....

    ReplyDelete

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Hey, thanks for your thoughts and your time:>)

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