Famous For It
Sitting at the counter
Ajax Grill
ask for a vanilla milkshake
and a hamburger, well done
Breathe in deep that nourishing smell
of fried and buttered and sweet
you get for free
just stepping in the door
Keeps you going while you wait
talk to the counter waitress
read the paper
peeling the paper off the straw
for your milkshake.
3/15/18
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
There are some places that are just special.
Yes. And you can’t always put your finger on it. You just know. This poem is based on the grill at the drugstore near where my father worked when we were little, and we used to stop in at work sometimes to see him and we’d eat lunch there.
I remember going to little drugstore restaurants. They were kind of special.
Besides getting to eat a grilled hamburger, which was a treat, there were those stools that twirled around, at the counter, and the little fortunetelling devices also on the counter where you put in a quarter and the Mysterious Swami would predict the future (never got to try it, my parents would not waste the quarter, as they said) and of course the waitress who had bouffant hairstyle that was brownish and bluish, a combination fascinated me because I had not known there was such a thing as hair dye. Which my parents also would not let me try.
🤣
I by and large have not missed eating out in this past year but your poem sparked something in me. It made me think of all of the times we are road tripping and we stop in at a local diner for a meal. The smells of comfort food and the warm atmosphere are always welcoming. So I guess I miss those experiences more than I thought.
I am the same, not missing eating out much, but I would like to get a hamburger at a grill again someday…