Just Cured - Experience Fine Foods

My short term project has morphed into a marathon. I have been out of town for ten straight days and will be so again this week. We did, however, squeeze a weekend visit to the home of some dear friends into my travel schedule. The weekend of sun, sand, surf, good food, better wine and the best company was just the buffer I needed between two weeks that were, frankly, frustrating.

We met a couple of characters over that weekend who I cannot get out of my mind. Both served us meals. Skeeter, by all appearances, runs a waterside hangout for locals. There is an owner and a chef, but I can tell she runs the joint. For a woman of a certain age, her hair is too blonde and too long, her jewelry is too large and her jeans are too tight. But it all works for her; she is a charmer. I can tell why her place is so popular. Janet is a waitress in an old-fashioned diner much like the one I enjoy so well at home. She is buxom, witty and sharp tongued in the classic diner-waitress mode. Her first words directly to me after I made a special menu request were “I have a special table for you honey — just on the other side of the (six lane) highway.” I was happy she didn’t place my special table in the center lane.

On those separate days, we engaged these two ladies in conversation. We learned that they grew up perhaps 75 miles from each other in the central Appalachian Mountains. They left home more than twenty years ago searching for opportunity and happiness. One appears to be anchored in her new home; the other dreams of retiring to the little place she has “back home.” I am sure neither knows the other exists.

During the little breaks between my many, many meetings last week, these two ladies popped into my head often. I thought of issues large and small. There is no reason they should have made a big impression on me; but they obviously did.

They personified to me the exodus from that area of Appalachia that I know so well and the migration to the land of sun and riches. They represent many changes in our national economy and political landscape.

I thought of their membership in the extremely large group of hard-working folk who support the equally small number of fantastically wealthy who have made that area a winter playground. The hedge fund managers and their billions make all the headlines. I wonder how many of them notice, much less appreciate, Skeeter, Janet and their millions of counterparts.

I thought about the changes in their lives — the shock of moving from home to a place so foreign and the slower transformation of this area from the sleepy place it was when they first arrived. The changes I have brought on myself have made me very sensitive to the changes and the choices others made and make.

Finally, I thought often about how genuine and engaging they both were, and how welcome I felt in their respective establishments. Many (dare I say most) servers could learn a lesson from these two ladies — in particular, the very attractive young bartender I encountered a few nights later. Her smile and light conversation at her nearly empty bar would have been much more believable had any of it occurred before she looked at my gratuity.

Good luck Skeeter and Janet; I wish you well. And if, by chance, you ever come upon this page, you should have let me pick up the checks this visit — and you’d better let me next time!