Clifton\u2019s Cafeteria, LA, CA 1940\u2019s<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We ate there every evening
\nafter our late night Vaudeville performance
\nat the Hippodrome Theatre on Main Street.<\/p>\n
We chose from an uncountable variety of foods–
\npeas, peas and carrots, string beans, lima beans,
\npickled beets or plain, creamed corn, and spinach.<\/p>\n
Mashed potatoes with gravy pools or if you preferred
\na pat of butter. Sliced and diced or whole peaches, pears,
\nand apricots, stewed purple plums with cinnamon.<\/p>\n
Hot baked or fried chicken, crisp hash, and pork chops
\nwearing their green feathered parsley. There was Jell-O plain,
\nfruited, and marshmellowed. Pies for every tastebud<\/p>\n
that bloomed. Two-layer carrot cake that oozed cream cheese
\nfrosting and chocolate cake freckled with walnuts
\nand always the menacing, unforgiving, staring fish-eyes<\/p>\n
of tapioca pudding. You could wear scruffy overalls, empty pockets,
\nmink coats, or Crowns and fill a tray with any plate that huddled
\nand waited\u2014five or 10 cents each. Then pick the Rain Room<\/p>\n
with its tin roof, Jungle Room with chattering, screeching monkeys
\nand an occasional roar that ducked your head in fear or
\nthe Waterfall Room with its misty, tumbling water that collided<\/p>\n
with lily pads, the Polynesian Room where leis and hula skirts
\nswayed on the walls as if at a luau\u2014then sat and became part
\nof the cacophony of glee. Father fended for himself at home<\/p>\n
those nights with a pot of beans, and his own cornbread,
\nand a quart of beer from Ward\u2019s Grocery Store around the corner
\non Hadley street. If he wished, he could wipe his lips clean<\/p>\n
with one of the initialed Clifton\u2019s napkins
\nMother always inserted covertly
\ninto her purse beside several swabbed, white dishes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gloria Piper Roberson<\/a> is a wife of 62 years, a mother of four, grandmother of six and great-grandmother of twin boys and their younger sister. \u00a0She has taken 12 quarters of Creative Writing at Wenatchee Valley College since 2002, eight with Derek Sheffield.\u00a0 Her work has appeared in Mirror Northwest<\/a> (2006-2007) <\/em>as well as Whitman Community College\u2019s The Noisy Water Review<\/a> (2006-2007) <\/em>and she authored the book Winning Hearts…Winning Wings, The Story of the First Nonstop Transpacific Flight (Wenatchee Valley Museum Cultural Center, 2003)<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>which has been translated into Japanese.\u00a0<\/em>She lives in Wenatchee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Clifton\u2019s Cafeteria, LA, CA 1940\u2019s We ate there every evening after our late night Vaudeville performance at the Hippodrome Theatre on Main Street. We chose from an uncountable variety of foods– peas, peas and carrots, string beans, lima beans, … Continue reading