THE CORBIN CAFE
When I was about ten, my parents ran a small café in my home town of Corbin Kansas. The picture below is the front door of that establishment. And (probably, TMI) the people in this photo are: Back row: my dad, Ralph a.k.a "Rusty," my brother Lagrant, an unknown man, my Uncle Herman Niebaum and my cousin Orcenith Smith. Then, in front of them, we have my mom Finace, Lagrant's wife Betty holding their first born Michael, my Aunt Myrtle (Orcenith's mother) (Her husband took the picture) my grandma Susan, my Aunt Grace (Herman's wife) and Aurora (Orcenith's wife)….Moving on (are you with me so far?) We have the wide mouthed Christine (Orcenith and Aurora's daughter, ME, with cousin Jerome Niebaum behind me, and Dick (Lagrant's wife Betty's younger brother.) PHEW!
And the reason I post this photo is to give you a sense of what those days were like..... The café was a thriving, albeit small, business with regular customers dropping in daily for a cup of coffee or a bite to eat (And in Harvest time, it was a goldmine with hired hands coming in from the fields for their noon day meal.)
But back to the regular customers....In town at that time we had a local bank and the local banker would take his mid-day break and arrive at the café around eleven o'clock for his cup of coffee and maybe a piece of homemade pie or a doughnut. And he always ordered thusly "Let me have a cup of that dishwater and...………"
After months, maybe years of this, my mother on one fine spring day gave him what he asked for. She went to the kitchen and scooped up a large cup of sudsy dishwater and placed it in front of him.
Not a word was spoken.. The banker finished his pie or doughnut, paid for it and bid everyone good-bye. But he always ordered coffee after that. (And, as a side note, he was later arrested for embezzlement and the bank closed.) And you thought small towns were boring!
And the reason I post this photo is to give you a sense of what those days were like..... The café was a thriving, albeit small, business with regular customers dropping in daily for a cup of coffee or a bite to eat (And in Harvest time, it was a goldmine with hired hands coming in from the fields for their noon day meal.)
But back to the regular customers....In town at that time we had a local bank and the local banker would take his mid-day break and arrive at the café around eleven o'clock for his cup of coffee and maybe a piece of homemade pie or a doughnut. And he always ordered thusly "Let me have a cup of that dishwater and...………"
After months, maybe years of this, my mother on one fine spring day gave him what he asked for. She went to the kitchen and scooped up a large cup of sudsy dishwater and placed it in front of him.
Not a word was spoken.. The banker finished his pie or doughnut, paid for it and bid everyone good-bye. But he always ordered coffee after that. (And, as a side note, he was later arrested for embezzlement and the bank closed.) And you thought small towns were boring!
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