Lapeer Memories

By Doris Burke Lots of weather this past week. Rain, snow, fog, cloudy, sunshine, Oh, I forgot for a minute, we do live in Michigan. I try to close my eyes to the elements and bundle up with my scarf covering my mouth and nose and then open the garage door and bravely hurry to the car. By the time I reach my destination the heater is working as it should, leaving my feet toasty and my nose warm. I am ready to do my grocery shopping, knowing when I return the car will be cold again for the ride home. Mercy, I am such a complainer!

Our Doris club met on Friday at the Farm House restaurant there on south main. The food was tasty and the conversation was interesting.

Knowing all these gals for quite a while now I have found “the Doris’,” are never at a loss for words. No mam, no lull or quiet lapse into silence. Nope, when one gal finishes her account of what is wrong with society, another continues on her knowledge of world happenings.

Darn, I’m going to suggest we raise our hands when we want to speak, I hardly got a chance to voice my opinion. We did hear a tap, tap, from our Doris Rolland and she asked a very important question, “who received a valentine this year and how many,”? Ho Hum! And, as an afterthought she had to say, “remember, this might be in the paper!”

I’m thinking she meant, no one wants to quote any bad words, swearing not allowed if you didn’t receive a valentine. Now, without mentioning a name, a sweet, unassuming, Doris lady, did have an outburst of profanity. She made us smile. A good time was had by all 10 of us. I had a lady and gentleman come up to me in Walmart a couple of weeks ago and after introducing themselves she remarked she would like to be part of the Doris club, but unfortunately her name was not Doris. It is always a pleasure to hear there are those reading my column and are keeping up to the goings on in my life and the friends who are such a part of it.

Speaking of restaurants there are so many up and down the south main strip. Most of them put out very good meals at a reasonable price. A certain amount of waste is involved when the plates are huge in portion. Take home is an option, but I find leftovers not to be my choice

Now, I entered the Old Stove Restaurant in downtown Lapeer and found it to have a quaint and warm atmosphere. A great account of the new restaurant was written up last October in The County Press, but I had never been in to see for myself. I was greeted by a pleasant lady named Rosie and she gave me the menu they were serving that day and the everyday servings available. I found the salads tempting to the eye and the warm food smelled wonderful. The nice thing about cafeteria food is, you can take a small or large portion, whatever your appetite allows, not any waste there. Their hours have changed from 8 am to 3pm and is now, 8am to 6pm. A convenient place for workers in the downtown district to grab a quick lunch and even for folks to stop in at dinner time for a warm and nurishing meal. Parking right outside the front door.

Hopefully other business ideas will make their way to the downtown empty stores and will help bring folks back to the town that was the bustling friendly place we all remember. So sad to see those stores empty.

I guess I have rambled on here long enough. I do have to make my way to the grocery store. I’m sure the people who work there probably think, there is that woman again who has her cart full of frozen dinners. Now, after 63 years I have resorted to laziness! Best wishes to all and enjoy life!