Don't forget to grab a tray!

I had lunch in a cafeteria yesterday, proving my long, slow slide into old age has picked up a certain amount of momentum. The good news is it was a late lunch, around 2:00pm or so, (not an "early bird" 4:00pm dinner), and it was at IKEA, so it barely counts, as cafeterias go.

But as I was sitting there eating, I looked over at the serving area and saw people grabbing trays and silverware, and was instantly taken back to the "golden age of cafeterias," at least for my small family. It was Atlantic City in the '60s. My parents loved cafeterias. Even as a kid, before I realized what "low rent" was, cafeterias felt decidedly low rent to me. Maybe it was the people sitting around us. It certainly wasn't us. But I digress.

I think my parents loved cafeterias for a number of reasons. First, you didn't have to wait long for food. You got a tray, got in line, and pointed at what you wanted behind the glass and a person slapped it on a plate for you. (This is the way it still works at IKEA, although the selections are fewer.) Second, you got to see the food first. This was always a bonus. I can almost hear my mom say, "I wanted to get the roast beef but it doesn't look good tonight..." And she would invariably get the roast beef instead. That was mom. Lastly, there was the cost thing. A family of four could eat relatively cheaply at a cafeteria as compared to a more traditional restaurant, that used that high-tone "waiter/waitress" system. We were on vacation--in the pre-gambling days of Atlantic City, when the major attractions were the beach, the ocean, and the Boardwalk, pretty much in that order--but we still watched our pennies.

We frequented two different cafeterias in Atlantic City each vacation, both of them located in chain stores which barely exist these days: Woolworths and McCrory's. We preferred Woolworths (McCrory's was a little seedier), and I don't know why we didn't just eat at the one all the time, except I suppose the Sassaman family coat of arms has "Variety is the spice of life" on it, because the Brits, they love their irony. (Sassaman is more of a German name, actually, but I like to think I'm more British/Welsh--on my mom's side--because the English seem a tad more civilized...but that might just be me.) Woolworths was bigger, cleaner, and had better food, as I recall, and the store in general seemed more successful. To this day, I can hear certain songs--pretty much anything by The Supremes, before Diana Ross got all diva-y and demanded top billing, or the Four Seasons, before Frankie Valli got all...well, you get the point--and I'm carried back to that cafeteria in the summers of the '60s. They played pop music instead of Muzak (thank god), and it burned a hole in my head that occasionally spins right round, baby, right round, like a record, baby.

Of course there were drawbacks. As a kid, the whole big tray with a plate loaded down with food, silverware, the inevitable dessert and a large soft drink, combined in weight to tax my little matchstick arms. And then of course that dessert mocked me through the entire meal. I was prone to lemon meringue pie and, as all parents do, admonished to eat a certain amount of my proper dinner before inhaling dessert. My eyes rarely strayed from that slice of pie, as if the fluffy meringue on top would wilt or blow away...or one of the fast moving bus boys would swoop in and be gone with it, while my eyes were averted to the nearby toy department (or, as I got older, a cute girl who was also dragged along by her parents to this below average eatery).

Those cafeterias are gone from Atlantic City now, I'm sure. The last time I saw a Woolworths was in London (in Notting Hill, to be exact), although there was one up the street from me here in San Diego, when I first moved in. It's gone, too, replaced by the House of Blues and a condo building that's taking forever to build. I go to Target now, but their food is largely junk food, and IKEA seems to be the only major chain store that goes the cafeteria route. It's funny, I guess...I went to look at lamps, got hungry for Swedish meatballs, and ended up with a trip down memory lane. Oh, those Swedes with their cheap furniture and cheaper memories.

Comments

[Maija]

I adore cafeterias. Whenever I get a chance to visit one, I cannot pass it up at any cost. I too remember going to cafeterias when I was young and my favorite was Woolworth's in El Cajon! A narrow little space with tall red plastic booths crammed against one wall and a long shiny glass cafeteria line along the other.

I always got a grilled cheese sandwich and green jello.

I've yet to try out the NYC version of "cafeteria" (I've heard they have an amazing fontina mac n'cheese)....but with orange juice running $3.50, and a hamburger about $11.....it just won't be the same....