Simply..moving....

8/8/2019

I can't quite get yesterday morning at the Rock Cafe out of my mind.

I was there about 8.15, between buses (it is right at the bus and ferry terminal) and had the unhealthiest breakfast I have had in a long time to fill the hour and a quarter till my next bus. At first I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not, but it was clean and cheerful. The man and woman working there greeted all the customers - quite a few people bought food to take away - by name.
'The usual?' they asked.
And 'How are you this morning?'

It is so entirely without pretension.
Timeless.
It could have been 1940, or 1960, or 2019
The menu may not have changed in all that time.

White bread fried, white bread toasted and buttered and a fried egg with a good strong cup of tea.

I loved it. I loved the Rock Cafe and the people in it and the railings and the shore and the lighthouse and the pier and the gulls and the early morning feeling of the town just starting its new day which would be just the same as yesterday and much the same as tomorrow probably and that would be fine and as it should be.

My stomach didn't love it and the bus journey to Colintraive along a winding and hilly single track road left me queasy!

That was fine too in it's way..

Was it nostalgia?

Or just that thing about liking what's real.

10 Comments

Lucille link

9/8/2019 02:24:50 am

It is rare to find an unreconstructed establishment these days. The stainless steel jug spoke to me of the 70s. If it had had a dried flower arrangement the picture would have been complete. But the food has undoubtedly improved. I remember being grateful for Cranks and its heavy multigrain breads!

Freda

9/8/2019 01:26:59 pm

That they chose to call it Cranks was significant wasn't it - now it is mainstream (well almost).

cath

9/8/2019 02:47:02 am

'So entirely without pretension' is what lingers after reading your words. Your words are both a vignette of the quality of the encounter as well as the quality of the entourage.

For a moment your writing transported me to then and there. Hearing the gulls, the clanking of the rope of the flag on the mast which you didn't mention but which I heard anyway and for a moment everything is as it should be. Timeless. Real.

Freda```

9/8/2019 01:31:54 pm

I'm so glad my words and pictures had this effect Cath! It's thrilling when someone sees what you are after.

Mary

9/8/2019 03:13:41 am

Cath said it better than I could, but she definitely captured the essence of feeling. Very real--and as you say, moving.

As for Lucille noticing the stainless steel jug...I still have one of those somewhere in my cupboards--part of a small set that included a tray, a tea pot and a sugar bowl, too, that I think I did indeed buy back in the 70s at John Lewis.

A ways off from your usual ferry, Freda.

Freda

9/8/2019 01:34:17 pm

A passenger only ferry runs from here Mary (an old tub - I really don't like it!). I love how you all ''got' what I was trying to say here!

Sheena

9/8/2019 07:52:07 am

It is lovely to suddenly realise that you are really enjoying an experience. When there are so many theme establishments nowadays, always geared to what will make the most money, it is cheering to be where what you see is what you get in the best of meaning of the phrase.

Freda

9/8/2019 01:37:07 pm

It's funny you say that. One of the exchanges when a customer declined the offer of anything else was a laughing 'How do you ecpect us to make money?!' Everyone laughed. So nice.

Julia

10/8/2019 04:34:37 am

Our cottage area of ontario is generally all that dated, Freda...:-) we enjoy the dated decor, the dated menu choices, and the friendly service. We feel at home..and when friend come, they feel like they’ve gone back to the 1950’s. There isn’t a fast food restaurant or high-end place within 30 miles...it’s relaxing and comforting too, isn’t it?

Freda

11/8/2019 12:57:00 pm

Psychologically comforting but my tummy wasn't comforted by all that fat :-(

Simply..moving....

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