Mr. Charley’s

When we first moved to Grass Valley, California from San Jose we wanted to get the lay of the land, so to speak.  We wanted to find the right grocery store, clothing stores, drug store and of course we wanted to find restaurants that we would like to go to.  I am going to make the focus of this article a breakfast place called Mr. Charley’s.  Mr. Charley’s was a breakfast place in downtown Grass Valley.  It was probably the most popular and busiest place to have breakfast in town.  The food was good, the prices were reasonable, the service was good.  They only really had one shortcoming.  They couldn’t make toast.  Or rather they couldn’t make it without burning it.  We used to joke about it when we would go to town.  Someone would say that Mr. Charley’s was open.  Someone else in the car would say, “how do you know”.  Answer: “Because I can smell burnt toast”.  Is there anything that smells worse than burnt toast?  I don’t know of too many things…maybe sulfur or some unmentionable stuff, but as a general rule burnt toast is high on the list of bad smelling things.  It didn’t seem to hurt their business.  They were always busy.  I wondered if they needed to buy a new toaster, or just pay closer attention to when the toast was ready.  Maybe they didn’t set the timer right, or maybe they delegated the responsibility for making toast to the person who had just been hired and didn’t know any better.  Whatever the reason, the end result was burnt toast.   

In our family, whenever we smell burnt toast, we automatically make reference to Mr. Charley’s.  I would say that the reference isn’t mean spirited, it was simply one of the delightful and endearing elements of downtown Grass Valley. It also provided common ground for all in our family because we all had experienced the wafting odor of burnt toast hanging in the air over that little foothill town. 

Jeff Goes Shopping. 

In many ways my youngest son Jeff looks at the world from a unique point of view, kind of like his father.  I am not taking credit for some of his perceptions of things, but one in particular has stayed with me for many years.  When we lived in Alta Sierra just south of Grass Valley the closest store was a neighborhood grocery store that also doubled as a large convenience store.  It was too small to be a real grocery store and too large to be a real convenience store.  Jeff went to the store to buy some things that we needed.  It was not an exhaustive list it included bread, milk, margarine, mayo, cereal, toothpaste and various other items.  He goes to check out and the checker asks him if he had everything he wanted.  A reasonable question… right?  Jeff thought about it and his response was “no there are a number of other things that I want, but I didn’t bring them to the counter.”  How many times are we asked the same question?   How many times do we think… you know there are some other items that I want… maybe I will go back and get them?  It shouldn’t hold the line up too long.  Or the checker says, “Is this everything?” “No, this is just some of the stuff.  I will get the rest later”.   

Now when anyone asks me one of those questions I go back to Jeff’s response.  Maybe I should just let it go.  Maybe have the checker think about what they should ask the customer at the checkout.  “How is your day going?”  “How about those Niners or Warriors?”   “Do you need bags?”  Hope they don’t say, “Will this be all?” or something to that effect.  Never mind… I know I will hold my tongue and not give them an answer.  It was probably rhetorical anyway.  They didn’t really expect me to indicate that what I brought to the counter was only the beginning.