Tag: ideal café

This blog post is in memory of one of my customers from my days as a waitress in a classic American “greasy spoon” café. Sadly, I’ve forgotten his name, but I’ve never forgotten his smile… and his tragic death. After my trips to Denmark and Nepal in 1978, I returned to the US for my final year at Carleton College. That was not to be. I had culture shock. My memories of my adventures clashed with orderly Northfield, Minnesota. People seemed to have changed, too. Our “student uniform” was typically a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt. Now, people were changing clothes when they went to dinner – in a college dining hall! That’s how I saw things, at least. People were thinking about final exams, and I was thinking about the world and its problems. I had to get out. I took a break from school that winter,…