Heartland

About the Book

Dorothea Danbridge had all ready gotten herself a sandwich and a table when I walked into Drake’s Sandwich Shop on North University. It was across the street from the Literary Endeavors Building which occupied the blockfront on the University’s campus.

Drake’s was a real institution in Rumsey having been initially established in this very location back in 1925. Somehow it had bucked the trend of restaurants in Rumsey which seemed to come and go every six to seven months.

I smiled at Dorothea through the window as I walked inside. The narrow storefront with its single window facing onto the street didn’t seem to have changed much since then either. The walls were painted black above and wainscoted below with a green, puce, white, and black floral wallpaper below of a style that I remembered my grandmothers in Coldstream Creek saying was quite fashionable. I had been a mere child at the time. Apparently, the more things changed, the more they stayed put.

I made my way carefully past the row of large jars filled with ‘moonrock’ candy which formed a sort of partition née obstacle alongside the entrance but inside the store. Rumsey old-timers had often told me about how this ‘moonrock’ candy had been the speciality of Drake’s from when it had first opened as a candy shop.

There were so-called ‘historic’ photographs of Drake’s taken in the late ‘20’s. They showed that it had been illuminated with gas lights even though the Edison Electric Company was providing its services in Rumsey after the First World War. Another set of photographs taken in the ‘40’s showed Drake’s now selling sandwiches and coffee and the like. Another post-War improvement had been the addition of a neon streetside sign and electric lights.

I went up to the counter at the back and placed an order. Then with my hands full with a drink and some munchies, I sat down at Dorothea’s table and examined what I had just purchased.

Dorothea was looking out the window watching the passing parade of students on the sidewalk.

My lunch appeared shortly thereafter. I started eating, wondering what was holding Dorothea’s attention. Perhaps, I thought, she was remembering herself as a young girl and a student here at the University.

She looked at me. “Oh Thomas. You’re here. Right on time too. I’ve been watching the students. Fascinating. They’re so young.” She sighed. “I was a student here at the University. I came to Rumsey in 1958 to go to college and have never left.”

“So Dorothea, you’ve lived in Rumsey over forty years?”

She smiled what I had come to think of as her ‘sly smile’. “Don’t remind me Thomas. Those kids out on the street now. They’re so young.” She looked at me for a moment and sighed. “But then I suppose I was young when I was a student back then.”

She gestured at the Literary Endeavors Building across the street.

Its exterior had been cleaned just recently. Now it was a grayish-tan color rather than the sooty gray I had always seen. The Rumsey Observer had written extensively about how the University was joining the ‘modern age’. I chuckled to myself. The University here in Rumsey had been heavily involved in the development of this communication thing people called the ‘internet’.

“I like this town though it sure has changed.”

“As does everything Dorothea. It’s a part of life. I’ve been here a mere fifteen years. Rumsey has gone from being a small farm town to . . .” I thought for a moment. “To just being a very nice small town.”

“Despite the students, Rumsey has always been very Republican.”

“I don’t get involved much in politics Dorothea. Though I did have occasion to treat our one gay city councilman recently. I came in 1985 after my lover passed on. I couldn’t abide living in San Francisco anymore. Too many memories.”

“Yes. I know about memories Thomas. I still try and not remembrer how it was coming to Rumsey when I was a kid. It was slow going in those days too. No freeway. Just the old River RoadHighway. Took about

About the Author

The author was born and raised in Michigan within spitting distance of one of the Great Lakes. When the time came to go forth into the Real World, he spent over half of his adult life in the San Francisco Bay Area as that was the only place there was a body of water large enough to simulate the Lake.