When I was a child we had a drive in in a nearby town called Rumley's. It was a tiny free standing hole in the wall that in its original incarnation had two plywood booths and shelves bulging with candy and cough medicine and St. Joseph's Aspirin and around the ceiling a shelf that held dozens of dusty and greasy trophies from the Connie Mack baseball team they sponsored every year. It was one of these places that the sign out front said "ABC On/Off", meaning they had a license from the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Board to sell beer for consumption on the premises and to purchase and carry off the premises for consumption.
I can remember that it was the summer of 1974, and I would put the date within 30 days prior to the resignation of the infamous U.S. President, Richard M. Nixon. On a Saturday evening my father had taken a bath and took me and my mother in her very white, 1967 Chrysler Newport to Rumley's for supper. He had his straw hat on. Pulled up in the curb service spot and we gave our order to the car hop. Then Daddy had to go inside and drink a beer. We weren't invited.
So there we sat and I had to go to the restroom so away I went, around the back where the outside entry restrooms were located, and noticed something on the wall on my way. On the way back I stopped to investigate the site, there on the whitewashed cinderblock block wall of the kitchen was written in pencil in the tiniest printing possible the word: Shitass. Nothing else. No frame of reference, no identification of who was one. Someone had gone to the trouble of documenting their feeling for someone apparently. I thought it was an extremely odd thing to come across.
I asked my mother what as Shitass was and she basically told me it was something bad you called someone you didn't like. I already knew that. I just wanted to hear what she would say.
Our food came, I went inside and told Daddy and directly he came out and ate. We were already finished. They got into an argument and I sat in the back seat and whispered to no one: Thanks for the warning.
Topic: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings (Read 2599729 times)