When the restaurants open back up, which one do you want to go to first? Why?

This post is about my favorite all time restaurant. It helped me have a life time love affair with breakfast and the sports page. To understand why I said that about breakfast and why I’ve entitled this post “be reflective” you will have to read all the way to the end of this once again way too long post. You will also understand why I am posting it today, April 27, 2020.

Back to the eatery of choice. My before mentioned diner would have been the posterchild for “family restaurant.” To me, this gave new meaning to a “Mom and Pop” establishment. While I would love to eat there once again, it is impossible as it is no longer open. You see, where I would love to have just one more meal in was the restaurant my dad and mom owned and operated in a little town in Western PA. It was a settling influence that helped shape me. Walk back in time with me as today I am being reflective.

Our little town had 3 traffic lights. I don’t think we needed that many except for the possible crazy Friday night traffic. At the time my dad’s restaurant was open, according to the 1970’s census, 1406 people that lived in that town. However, for that to be an accurate count, I think the census had to have a clinker in its hand as it passed through a few of the cemeteries in the area. It sat in the foothills of Western PA and was built around coal mines and the steel mills of Pittsburgh. Although I was just a kid, I recall people being hard working, matter of fact, blue collar people. I don’t recall people trying to be something they were not. Because it was a small town, we had community. Community that came with both positive values as well those that spring its ugly head when everyone thought it was their business know everyone’s business. But it was community.

Part of what built that community was dad’s restaurant. It was Cheers before Cheers and without the beer. There was a guy named “Norm” Shaffer and we sure knew everyone who came in. Why? They just lived around the corner. We had a counter that police officers got free coffee and a donut. People would talk about last night’s little league game, who recently got baptized at one of the local churches and what team brought home the bowling trophy. Everyone loved the Steelers and hated America’s team and even more loathed the Oakland Raiders.

I listened to all these conversations as I ate breakfast and read the sports page on summer mornings as well as some Saturdays in the winter. Everyone knew me. I was Howard and Gale’s youngest boy. I loved the fact that everyone knew me and liked me. Except for the time when I was going to dad’s restaurant and I was racing a friend on my bike. Apparently, according to the opinion of someone who saw me, I was riding recklessly. That car driver simply went straight to dad’s store and told dad before I even got inside. Dad shared the assessment of the driver as I didn’t get to ride that bike again at least a week. It felt like a month. Maybe even a year.

I would eat breakfast and read the sports page before I would go to work for dad. My primary job was to help my grandpa on what was called “The Fuzzy Truck” as grandpa’s name was Fuzzy. We would go to the local gas stations, factories, mechanic shops and the VFW to sell coffee, donuts and hot sandwiches. I wore a change machine on my belt and I would be the cashier. I was only about ten years old but I got real good at that there cyphering. Almost as good as Jethro Bodine. By the time I was 13, I knew the route so well that am certain I could have run the route myself if my legs would have been long enough to push the clutch all the way forward in order to change gears while driving the truck.

In that little town; in that little mom and pop cafe; and on that “Fuzzy truck” I learned how to talk to people. I was taught a good work ethic and to value people. I learned ways to intentionally facilitate people into help themselves feel special. I learned not to gossip but to be kind. I learned there was a value in having a good name.

Have you been reflecting with me? Hopefully it has been more than just what restaurant you want to sit down and eat at when this ban is lifted. Hopefully it has been about community. And about people within that community that played a primary role in who you have become. As we continue this time of being quarantined, take some time to reflect. What helped shape you? Are you taking those positive traits and attempting to pass them on to others? As I have written previously during this time of self-separation let’s “Be Kind” to those near us. In addition, let’s “Be appreciative.” Since our time is now being spent in different modalities than we normally do, take some time to “be reflective.”

Okay, why write this way too long missive today? Why write about dad’s restaurant today, April 27, 2020. You see it was two years ago on this very day that our Creator wrapped his nail scarred hands around my dad’s body and allowed him to enter the place He have prepared just for Dad. I am confident Jesus said to dad the words found in Matthew 25:21, “Well done good and faithful servant, well done!”

One final reflection. While I honestly do not aspire for the following day to come quickly for me, and I am uncertain when it will come, I know one day it will come. I, like all of us, will one day die. And when that day does come, for me, I yearn to hear those words from Matthew 25 that I am confident dad heard two years ago today. In addition, I hope Jesus says one more thing to me. I hope that He adds, “Give me just a moment and I’ll go get your dad.” Then I desire that our all wise Lord bends down, places that nail pierced hand on my shoulder and very gently whispers into my ear the very words he stated to the disciples in John 21:12 “Come, and have breakfast.”