Good Times at the Tip Top

            My mind does a dance and I am swept to another time and another place. I am approximately four years old and sitting in a big red seat that is too large for my little body. Mommy and Daddy call it a booth. The black and white tile floor appeals to me and I concentrate on the alternating squares of tile; black then white, black then white. This continues as far as my young eyes can see.

            Soon, a lady appears and calls herself our waitress. Daddy calls her Nancy. She has dark hair and green eyes. She takes our orders. Mom and Dad order coffee and I order a Pepsi. The lady writes this down on a white pad of paper, smiles at me and says she’ll be right back 

            While she is gone, I look around me. Big long seats just like the one we’re sitting in line either side of this place. Scattered between them are small round tables with red chairs. The sun makes the silver edge of the tables shine and my young eyes are drawn to it immediately. I watch as the sunlight dances around the room making all of the silver in the room shine too.

            The lady named Nancy comes back to our table. She is carrying a round silver tray with our drinks on it. She sets mine down first. I stare down into the brown liquid in the glass. It is foamy and I tilt the glass to my lips. The brown liquid is cold and sweet and tastes good going down.

            I look over at Daddy who sits directly across from me. He smiles at me and takes a sip from his cup. His cup is different than mine. It’s white, has a handle and you can’t see through it. Steam rises from the cup and an almost black liquid can be seen on the top. Mommy’s cup is steaming too but hers is a light brown color, like mud. Steam rises from her cup as she sips from it. She watches me as she drinks slowly, smiling faintly.

“That’s good coffee,” Daddy says to the waitress and gets a “refill” as he calls it.

            Time passes and we head out to the sidewalk. Home is just a few blocks away. I look back at the building. The sign reads “The Tip Top.” Mommy and Daddy each grab a hand as we head for home.

            The dance stops and I am jolted back into the present. I yearn for those days. Life was so much simpler then. There were no “bad people” in the world and if there were, I didn’t know them. I was smaller and slid easily behind the big, red booth. Most of all, I had Mommy and Daddy by my side and they were both in good health.

            Life has a much different beat these days. It’s not safe to walk downtown anymore, not even with others around you. Every time I turn the television on, it never has anything good to tell me. Somebody’s always getting shot or going to prison for something. When I was little, I didn’t know drugs existed. Now, I hear about them in the news daily.

As I grew up, I found out that the world is full of “bad people” after all. The basic ties that bind a family together are severed these days. Families are not what they used to be. I think part of the problem is that with both parents working and overstressed, there is no time for bonding with other family members. It’s sad but it’s a fact.

I also learned that nothing lasts forever including people. Nothing is simple or free anymore. Drive-ins, diners, and nuclear families are all becoming a thing of the past. There is no simple ways for people to unwind anymore like there was when I was growing up. We had drive ins, parks and good diners like the Tip Top where families could just be families and spend time together. Now, everyone has ipods, e-mail, Blackberries, and instant messenger services and yet we have never been more disconnected as a society. It’s just another sad fact.

If I close my eyes, I can see Dad sitting across from me at the diner. His hair was still black and his eyes were twinkling. As soon as I open them however, the realities of life hit me in the gut. We lost Dad in May, watching him die piece by piece for the past five years. No matter what, that’s the cold truth of reality and nothing can bring him back. He is in the same place as drive-ins, diners and peace. The past.

The Tip Top is part of our history. Unlike drive-ins and Dad, we have a chance to rectify a piece of that simple, peaceful time. I hate to think that we have to close it down just because it’s not generating as much business as say, McDonalds. It is a link to our past, a symbol of a simpler time and a simpler life. Let’s not throw it away. Let’s give family’s a chance to start over, to be families again. Let’s show our youth that they don’t have to go to McDonald’s. They can go down Main Street to the Tip Top. As Dad would say “That’s good coffee. Give me some more.” I echo his sentiments. Life is getting hard. I need something to remind me it wasn’t always this way. Places like the Tip Top represent life as I knew it. Give me some more, please.