Eagle Diner idea a success - Poems: Mom and I Play Scrabble and Eat Pea Soup - Home of the Whopper

We met in the lobby of the Eagle Diner while the hostess set up our table. Harriet Rellis gave me a gift. She didn't like my eating out of the cracked bowl of the late Elinor Schuler. And I'm so mad at Elinor's husband George for dying. He was in great shape, walking at Ann's Choice for at least a mile.

He told me in one of his emails that, after Elinor died - she had dementia -  the old ladies there sure looked good to him. He flew up to Portland to meet Sally's family. He was so happy! When I was walking around the block one time I met a former mailman who opined that George died of a heart attack.

Rem, of course, was at the Eagle early. The Barrett Twins were there - Jane and daughter Linda the most prolific poet you've ever met - Ken Ivins from our writing group, who looked spiffy in a jacket - he'd just come from church - and me.

Hear that music in the b/ground? It's Cream playing at Albert Hall. I think Jack Bruce is the only one who's passed to the Great Beyond.

Such great fodder at the Eagle. I ordered the salad bar. Made two trips till I got everything I wanted on the table.

Cream of chicken n rice zoup, carrot salad with relish, tiny pieces of cauliflower even tho Scott and I had Cauliflower Crust Pizza with the usual suspects on top. Scott was asleep shortly after eating. I watched an excellent Call the Midwife and then the conclusion of The Unforgotten. Who murdered and buried gay men?

Why am I in such a good mood?

Three cups of excellent coffee at the Eagle.

Rem always orders roast Duck. He didn't finish it, so I claimed it. Sticky fingers.

I almost ordered dessert. At the salad bar was a glazed pear atop breadfruit. It was terribly heavy, so I stopped eating it.

Boy that coffee was good. It came in a little carafe like they have at IHOP and I really enjoyed pouring it into the cup. Allie was our waitress.

Afterward I drove directly to Mom's. She'd missed my sister Donna's b'day party yesterday cuz her legs wouldn't work right.

She was making her famous pea soup.

Let's play Scrabble, I suggested, to help her mind and my mind.

Lemme write a quick poem now while Cream is screaming onstage at Royal Albert Hall. They've only been together for two yrs, said the annunciator, but they are gooood!!!

MOM AND I PLAY SCRABBLE AND STIR THE PEA SOUP

Kitchen table was filled with papers,
ads from Acme, Giant, and everything she gets
in the mail. I put them on the counter and
spread out the board.

Scrabble: Made by Selchow and Righter. Mom
thought it might be Milton Bradley and Co.

We drew tiles to see who would go first.
Mom did, making the word Wait. Double points,
I said. And the competition was on.

She made words like Train, Raids, Tit (attached to another word) and I used my Z for Zag. My friend Walter Straus had a Scrabble dictionary where you could check to see if it's a real word.

Mom said she was hungry after we called it quits.
Thinking, I said, takes a lot of energy. She had
two bowls of her pea soup, while I had one.

She may have bad legs that barely work anymore
but her mind's a work of art.

***

Dan is teaching Grace, almost 8, to play chess.
He has a beautiful marble chess set he took out
last night when I was there.

When Dan was a teenager I enrolled him in a
free chess class at the Huntingdon Valley Library,
the old library, which was in a church.

He remembered how to play and is now teaching
his daughter.

***
At the poetry reading with Lynn Levin, I also read

HOME OF THE WHOPPER

Is it the toasted bun
that makes it taste so good?
Or the pickles that delight
our tongue?
Best not to think of the meat
and where it comes from
The coffee, tho, won a prize
Sip slowly, tasting each delicious
fruit of the bean, Arabica -
Vunderbar! Close your eyes
and find yourself in a Parisian cafe
far from the Home of the Whopper.

ONE OF THE FOUNDERS of Burger King, Dave Edgerton,
died at age 90.

Oh! Almost forgot. Watched 60 Minutes Overtime with Bob Simon who interviewed the
chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

Good night! Fare ye well. See you soon. Mwah mwah!

Oh, when I came home from Scott's I spent a bit of time outdoors. The night was dark except for the stars and constellations. I've gotta learn which is which. The ground looked psychedelic like when I was at Goddard College in my early 20s and took a mescaline trip. Really something!!! I wrote in my diary about it for 45 pages!