Enga mellom fjella: where from across the meadow, poems sing from mountains and molehills. |
Carolina, Carol Lynn, Sweet Caroline. I wasn't happy. The Greyhound station in Springfield is spanky new, but no lockers, and stuck out in the middle of nowhere. I guess the poor aren't encouraged to take a bus. Couldn't get to the center of town in a timely fashion. Totally dismal. Totally inconvenient. So I walked a mile with my backpack and satchel. Wal*Mart, Car*Mart, Burger*Mart. The usual fare of Blond Bleached Bland America. After all, this is the Bible Belt, a city sprawl of Bible Colleges, Missouri State, Drury ... and ... not much else. So there was this non-suburban looking place. I walked into the Maple Restaurant at 2253 North Glenstone. Old route 66 ran by it back in the day ... it's an old fashioned diner (established 1955). I had 2 eggs (fresh ) with grits, and biscuit and gravy (white peppery heart-blocking stuff) [$2.75 ] The waitress was Carol. She put back a smile on my day. So I gave her a $5 tip. So I sit here with coffee. Doing the blog thingy and soon I will leave (it might rain). But I had a nice morning. I meandered down the street to ABC Bookstore. Aisles and aisles of Christian this or that. I did find a copy of poems Lyrics of the Hearthside [1903] of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Haugen's Norwegian-English dictionary. Spoke with red-haired Melissa and brunette Rebecca. I read them "Old grey tom" and gave them a copy of Gzaibun (copy #27). IMAGES: Gravel paths, bottle caps, cigarette butts, a syringe ... small blue flowers (creeping charlie?) Missouri: 65 degrees and nice. 3075 |