Tag Archives: breakfast

The Road to Diamond, Day 236: Doughnuts

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

July 22, 2025- Strawberry Shortcake is a nice name for one of the offerings at Parlor Doughnuts, the pleasant current occupant of a two-tiered restaurant on the north side of Montezuma Street. The place has been a rough and tumble Mexican restaurant; an Italian restaurant with great food, but somewhat snobbish management; and a fine dining establishment that couldn’t quite get its act together. The Mexican place and this coffee shop are actually my favourites of the four.

I used to indulge quite heavily in doughnuts, sometimes mistaking them for a good breakfast. Some years back, a casual acquaintance pointed out that they are properly a dessert. Over the past four years, my consumption of the pastry has been limited. Even with the high quality of Parlor’s fare, that will remain the case. I’ve had two, in the last three weeks; so, seeing them as a specialty dessert is still the case. Besides, Parlor’s doughnuts are bigger than those in other shops around town.

All in all, my once heavy food consumption has been largely reduced. I am still a faithful member of the Clean Plate Club, though. It’s another feather in my mother’s cap.

Two-Hour Delay

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Posted by on in children, Education, Poetry

January 24, 2017, Prescott-

School started at 10,

instead of 8.

Ice clogged the streets,

many pick-up drivers feared being late.

So, as I drove carefully along,

there were several who swung around me.

Arriving safely at work,

I was glad to, rid of traffic, be.

Shortened schedules bother our students,

a lack of mid-morning breakfast,

also an unwelcome surprise-

how imprudent.

We made it safely through, with no bumps and bruises.

A fair amount of learning,

even a short day infuses.

 

Lunch Pail People

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Posted by on in Community, distraction issues, Social

November 5, 2016, Prescott-  I sat down for breakfast with friends at the local lodge of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), enjoying pancakes, with scrambled eggs, bacon and a sausage link- for less than what Denny’s would charge for same.  It was my first visit to the lodge, which sits a scant 1,000 yards from my house.

A disparate crowd comes to breakfast here- a retired district court judge, a diesel mechanic, the city’s mayor (once in a blue moon), a retired Army major and a former jet pilot, for starters.  The organization draws more female veterans than does the American Legion.  It is also meeting some success in attracting younger men, who have served in our recent wars.

When I checked my social media feeds, after breakfast, I spotted a photo of my second eldest paternal uncle, proudly giving his younger daughter’s hand in marriage, some thirty   years ago.  He passed away, not long afterward, but the  expression of pride on his face is timeless.  He was an electrician and  carpenter, most of his adult life.My parents, as well as  uncles and aunts, on both sides of the family, were , by and large, members of the lunch pail crowd- people who played by the rules, mostly worked the same jobs for decades, and took a lot of heartache in stride, because there seemed little other choice.

The people with whom I took breakfast this morning are, likewise, those who are trying their best, every day, to live life as they always have, and are seeing a multitude of changes, some good and some not so beneficial.  The lives of lunch pail people are turning upside down.  Many of them are buying into the hype, offered by one candidate or accepting, as truth, the white noise and innuendo regarding both main candidates.

I trust that, as the election fades into the background, those who work hard for a living will remember that it is only by standing firm, together, that the people of this nation have ever made any real progress.