THE LUNCHONETTE

Taking a drive and I see a banner on the side of the road – …“Luncheonette”…can’t help but  think of that word…something with an “Ette’ tacked to it refers either to the size of the mea,,,the place...or the size of the check…the latter more likely…Oh the idle mind is such a devil’s playground…and then I’m hungry for a burger from George & Mary’s. Luncheonette.

In every kid-life there is a luncheonette – or a local diner (a “greasy spoon”) as Grandmother Ethel would say…usually small in size and menu but big in the kid-life…

George and Mary’s…was our hangout…right across from the Bacon Jr. High a (named after a long-gone educator but a just a joke for many of its students who made on king sounds whenever anyone mention it.  And we were permitted, as trusted 8^th graders, a privilege the lowly lower grades didn’t have… to go there for lunch rather than to endure the dietitian delights served daily in the school’s basement cafeteria…which BTW no matter what it was always smelled like cheese!

But G&M served anything that could be fried…long before the Golden Arches popped up all over the world…the menu…great kid cuisine designed to taste good…not to reduce sodium intake…lower calories or fight global warming.

My regime changes daily…sometime a burger dripping with goodness other days I craved a cheese steak drowned in fried onions…my best buddy Bub preferred “subs” – which he devoured every day…I however with a more sophisticated appetite did not particularly enjoy ich meat swimming in vinegar and oil…I found that this seemed to overpower the continental flavors of the Italian lunchmeat,  .  (Why is it that almost everything in life that tastes good is now considered bad for you…and now kids must subsist on a baked burger without meat…I feel sorry for them … but I digress)

Each lunch the place was wall to wall with hungry kids JUKE Box who only had 20 minutes to eat and make it back to classes before the late bell tolled.  But George, the owner, wrapped in his white apron and presided over the chaos with great skills taking orders and shouting them out…even though Mary was only standing a few feet away…(this routine I observed was to xxx that everything was “cooked to order” as they say in the trade…actually, Mary started cooking burgers two hours before our lunch period or half of us would have gone back to school hungry.

The lunch battle was played out Monday through Friday – 180 school year battles of the burger and shakes.  But on Friday and Saturday nights the placed changed dramatically from a food joint to a “gambling den” for in the rear of the store was a magnificent flashing, dinging pinball machine – presided over by Brad the grandson of George and the all-time South Millville pinball shark!  His was always the high score and initials that was announced to the regulars on the machine backboard – this was a feature of most of these very expensive and exotic machine.  And there was always glowing pictures of a theme of the machine which always featured a buxom women smiling suggestively at player.

When Brad played none of our gang was permitted to talk…or we would get a withering stare from the perpetual champion of the game.  He was a master at flipping the flippers at the perfect moment to control where his ball would go and he never “titled” the machine like must of us…this the frustrating mechanism that immediately shut the game down if the player was trying to force a ball into one of the dingers or big score hole in the deck which cause the machine to come alive with music and ringing bells.  For two nickels two could play against each other – the challenger providing the coins and Brad playing free forever…he rarely had to fork up 5 cents as he never lost in our collective memory.  Sometimes however, he did buy his opponent a cherry coke as a token – his was a benevolent master.  (And he always paid George his grandpa for all his drinks but never was charged by Mary…his grandmother. George was known for to be thrifty and that’s why I always wanted his wife Mary to dip my ice cream cones)

I never came close to beating Bradley…I contended that the machine was designed for right handed flippers and I was lefthanded for everything.  Brad just smiled when I said this every time I lost.  But then one Friday night…

With 5 pals as my witness I tied Brad’s score for the first time…he was shocked and demanded a re-match.  And so a South Millville legend began…

Brad’s brother was on the payphone telling the rest our gang to hurry over as history might be made tonight.  Brad bought me a coke…he always waited between games because he said it gave the tilt device a chance to cool down.  Brad made a surprising move – he said, “Let’s put some money on this…and winner takes all - he put a dollar on the counter (big money in those days).  I in of their own. 

Brad went first an scored big.  I followed and after the first ball I was down by 5000 points – a miniscule difference in the high scoring system of pinball. By the end of the 4^th ball we were tied at 38,000 points each – everyone in the place was now gathered around the machine, Mary even had unplugged the Jukebox during a song even George was watching…he too felt that this could be a monumental night for his luncheonette…for is family.

I sent my last ball up the shut and played it a long time as sweat poured down my face…Brad as usual just patiently and coolly waited his turn…he was confident in his long practiced skills.  Finally my last chance dropped into the depths of the machine and my score posted – 56,757.

Brad ball began its’ journey with dings and bells galore.  He was playing the machine like a virtuoso plays a Stradivarius…and then it happened as he finesse his ball against a bumper – the machine stopped TILT the sign blared – he stood looking at the machine transfixed in shock.  He overplayed the game and lost to the dreaded default sensor not to me –  Brad left without saying a word. 

 This night would go down in our kid-lore as the night Brad tilted…not the night Cal beat the master – but for me it was a win and I would take it and his buck too.