You Can't Fight Culture by Jane Smith
We walked into Marguerite’s, the quaint, if-I-hadn’t been in central Florida-almost Southern-like café near the bay in Dunedin, ready for the kind of meal you can only get in such a place – the “famous” homemade chicken salad on lettuce or in a sandwich, fresh coconut cake on a cake stand on the counter, beside a jar of homemade cookies. Evie wanted to sit under the butterflies that floated over the tables in the back, but those tables were all filled by “snow birds,” the older people who flock to Florida in the winter, or go there to retire. So we took the table by the window, across from two older women deep in a loud, hard-of-hearing conversation.
Our waiter, a wiry, obviously stressed young man with a bit of a rush swirling about him, smiled, walking towards us, and asked the usual question, “What would you ladies like to drink?” Katie, who comes here often, mainly because it is across from the Dunedin library that she and Evie love, said “What is your special tea today, is it Peach?” I asked if they had it in sugar free, and he said “No, but we can make you a raspberry tea in sugar free…would you like that?” Yes, thank you. Katie said she would like that, as well, instead of the peach.
He returned with two glasses, and, as he placed them in front of us, said “This is the one with the sugar free and we only had enough for about a glass and a half. So I added some sugar to yours (looking at Katie). Is that okay?” Then he looked directly at me and said, with a sweet level of caring that was evident, “I assume you are diabetic.” “No,” I laughed, “I just want sugar free.” Do just diabetics order sugar free?
We ordered our meals – I did get the chicken salad! – and our waiter walked away to another table.
Katie and I laughed about it, she suggested I just say yes and let it be, I said “No! I don’t even want to pretend it!” Yet the whole episode, while very funny in the moment for both of us, made us think.
Culture speaks again. It always does.
There are a lot of people in the Tampa Bay area – Tampa itself, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Dunedin type small towns. My son Gill said that he read somewhere that there are as many people here as there are in the entire state of North Carolina. And many of these are the aforementioned snow birds…very many of them.
Our waiter saying “I assume you are diabetic” was a complete match to what he must see everyday. It was clear I was “older” and a match for the population – just because I don’t view myself that way – “old” - doesn’t mean others don’t. Even Katie saying, “Say yes,” was a bow to the culture…just go along, it’s got you.
I laughed about it…the very solicitous and sweet waiter with the big, soulful eyes even said, eyes twinkling, when he brought a red velvet cheesecake dessert for Katie, “I brought an extra spoon for your sister here, if she wants a bite.” Trying to make up, I suspect. We watched the two older women from the hard-of-hearing conversation leave the restaurant, one with a walker, the other with a cane. Katie said “This is probably the highlight of their day, going to lunch at Marguerite’s.”
A cultural experience, indeed.
Our waiter, a wiry, obviously stressed young man with a bit of a rush swirling about him, smiled, walking towards us, and asked the usual question, “What would you ladies like to drink?” Katie, who comes here often, mainly because it is across from the Dunedin library that she and Evie love, said “What is your special tea today, is it Peach?” I asked if they had it in sugar free, and he said “No, but we can make you a raspberry tea in sugar free…would you like that?” Yes, thank you. Katie said she would like that, as well, instead of the peach.
He returned with two glasses, and, as he placed them in front of us, said “This is the one with the sugar free and we only had enough for about a glass and a half. So I added some sugar to yours (looking at Katie). Is that okay?” Then he looked directly at me and said, with a sweet level of caring that was evident, “I assume you are diabetic.” “No,” I laughed, “I just want sugar free.” Do just diabetics order sugar free?
We ordered our meals – I did get the chicken salad! – and our waiter walked away to another table.
Katie and I laughed about it, she suggested I just say yes and let it be, I said “No! I don’t even want to pretend it!” Yet the whole episode, while very funny in the moment for both of us, made us think.
Culture speaks again. It always does.
There are a lot of people in the Tampa Bay area – Tampa itself, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Dunedin type small towns. My son Gill said that he read somewhere that there are as many people here as there are in the entire state of North Carolina. And many of these are the aforementioned snow birds…very many of them.
Our waiter saying “I assume you are diabetic” was a complete match to what he must see everyday. It was clear I was “older” and a match for the population – just because I don’t view myself that way – “old” - doesn’t mean others don’t. Even Katie saying, “Say yes,” was a bow to the culture…just go along, it’s got you.
I laughed about it…the very solicitous and sweet waiter with the big, soulful eyes even said, eyes twinkling, when he brought a red velvet cheesecake dessert for Katie, “I brought an extra spoon for your sister here, if she wants a bite.” Trying to make up, I suspect. We watched the two older women from the hard-of-hearing conversation leave the restaurant, one with a walker, the other with a cane. Katie said “This is probably the highlight of their day, going to lunch at Marguerite’s.”
A cultural experience, indeed.
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