Lunch Counter
They fought like lions for territory,
especially when my mom felt cornered
& went overboard guzzling Brava Rosetta.
Dad was eager to drive me to my first job,
the frantic night shift at Woolworth’s
lunch counter where I slung cheeseburgers
& fashioned banana splits with strawberry bits,
pineapple pieces & Hershey’s syrup drizzled
pineapple pieces & Hershey’s syrup drizzled
on the extravagant display. Don’t forget
the whipped cream from a metal canister,
chopped nuts & three red maraschinos.
chopped nuts & three red maraschinos.
I stuffed oversized ziplocks with the slick,
shiny coins. Using a Craftsman tape
measure my mom measured copious
stacks before dumping them in wide-mouth
Mason jars. I scored my first $30 guitar,
Mason jars. I scored my first $30 guitar,
a Harmony Silvertone & my first portable
stereo. I played Jimi Hendrix & Buffalo
Springfield & planned my Great Escape.
Nickels, dimes & quarters
eventually rolled me out of that town.
eventually rolled me out of that town.
16 thoughts on "Lunch Counter"
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hi Dahlin 😀
You are just gonna drop in and remind people that guitars were only 30 dollars in the sixties. ❤️ great poem,
I can hear it, the guitar, the burgers the whipped cream and the slick clean sounds of noisy money.
weren’t those guitars Danelectros?
And Joplin, I hope…
I almost put her in!
The emotional undercurrent in this piece lingers with me. The sensory detail is vivid, but the hope the last line provides is brilliant.
They fought like lions for territory
slung cheeseburgers
chopped nuts and three maraschinos
Great descriptions throughout. The cheeseburgers and delicious depiction of that banana split take me back to the days of my first job, working at Culver’s. Good memories.
The “Great Escape” fund started with my first job didn’t get me very far (I’m not great at saving.) The counter and jockeying for position makes your poem so relatable– Love this!
Time capsule, Linda <3
“Nickels, dimes & quarters
eventually rolled me out of that town.”
A nostalgic poem about a woman who, ummm, nickle and dimed her way to the life she wanted. Also, you made me very hungry. Good poem!
This poem is a phenomenal mosaic of a particular time and personal experience. You place us right there with you. Amazing!
“rolled” works well
Love this, especially that your dad wanted to drive you to work. Cuts against the grain of how he seems in many of your other poems. He wasn’t all bad, thank God.
A good start for the month, darlin.
ah, the age of the three red maraschinos,
what they meant to the grown-ups
and what we were slow to catch on to
Those lunch counters were gold mines of culture! I see you hitching out of town with a guitar strapped to your back.
Congrats on your Accents book!
What a great ending image, Linda!