A Stroll Down Memory Lane…
Hmmm, that just might pass for an occasional address… I don’t spend a great deal of time there, but I do visit now and then. It’s almost always a pleasant time, though, and the reflection triggered is well worth the mental energy expended during such distractions from the sometimes-vexing present. Fond memories are nice, of course, and like most folks, I do enjoy savoring again some of my good times.
It is also a good time to relearn some the hard discovered lessons revealed to us during earlier times. Among those is the fact thinking we’re right at the time doesn’t necessarily guarantee we were correct in those thoughts… That thinking we are right or at least being able to avoid blame or criticism for incorrect beliefs isn’t enough. Outcomes and consequences matter, too, regardless of our intentions.
CF Penn Hamburgers in Decatur, Alabama, is a place that holds a very special spot in my memory bank, and I usually visit there at least once a year since that first time in 1962 when I was introduced to their unique offerings. Those morsels aren’t all that fabulous, but they are guaranteed to trigger memories and bring back thoughts of my ‘journey’ since that time in my early introduction to some of the more serious flaws in the character of all people… That even the best among us sometimes makes terrible mistakes…
The Decatur CF Penn is now at its third location since the time of my first visit (it is also the sole remaining location of the once three locales in three different towns of that small chain). The second location burned down a few years back, and they were actually closed for a couple of years before it was reopened. That explains why I had a break in the number of consecutive years of my visits. I always get around to considering the first location I visited, however, and those recollections always give me pause…
In the summer of 1962, ‘Jim Crow Laws’ were still alive and fully present in daily life in good ol’ Bama. Like other restaurants, eateries, all places of that sort including CF Penn were very much segregated. ‘Colored people’ had to order, pay, and receive their ‘to-go only’ orders through a sliding glass window at the store front. Whites could come in, have a seat on a bar stool, and enjoy their treats. The burgers themselves were $.20 apiece including sale’s tax, and cold drinks in a bottle were $.10 apiece including tax.
I had a part-time job in a shoe store for a time around the corner and half a block up 2nd Ave. On Saturdays, I’d slip down to Penn’s for my usual midday meal… A fifty-cent coin got me two all the way and a Pepsi… perfect! I’d also be reminded of the ‘differences’ in dining experiences, most aspects of life really, for different citizens of this town. Of trying to make sense of it all, of not understanding the how and why of this disparity…
The unfairness of those arrangements became clear to me as my journey of life took me beyond the cloistered environment of north Alabama. In time the injustice and inappropriateness, the assault on basic dignity, of all of that also became obvious. What I still wrestle with, however, is how the ‘good folks’ in my life… and I… back then could have accepted that situation…?
I’d accepted it because I didn’t know any better, and in part because those influential good folks in my life had persuaded me that it was the reality of the world we inhabited. I now think they also accepted it for essentially the same reason I had.
Believing we were ‘right’ and in accordance with reality might explain our actions and thinking, and it might lessen the impact of our blame at least to ourselves, but it does nothing to overturn the indignity, injustice, and harm inflicted upon an undeserving group of fellow human beings. Our ‘innocence’ and naivety may be a refuge sought by some, but it does not cancel, alter, or excuse the terrible deeds themselves. It’s not enough to believe we are right… We are still responsible for being right, too.
Such thoughts, for this sojourner anyway, are healthy and good for the soul. I need to be reminded of my duty to all my fellow human beings, and of my duty to properly construct and prepare my own values and beliefs systems. To not settle for ‘plausible deniability’ but to also take responsibility for my actions and do the absolute best job possible with my treatment towards others… For this burger connoisseur, CF Penns is so very much more than a mere hamburger stand… it also offers ‘soul food’…
Truth in advertising...
CF Penn burger construction in progress...
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One hot June afternoon in 1962 a stranger approached this naïve high school student during the break between the sophomore and junior years of his ‘sentence’. My family had just moved to Decatur and the stranger was another boy of my age and school year who lived a few houses up the street from our new hacienda.
Following introductions, he inquired if I’d like to go get a burger… “Sure!” I fatefully responded… I’ve been going back since… I do savor a few burgers, but I always dine lavishly on ‘soul food’! No, I don’t live on Memory Lane, but I do drop by now and then…
DDT (12)
