The Delightful, La Macchinetta
Was The Center Of My Coffee Universe
In the late 1960s Woolworth’s and Kresge’s were mecca to High School students. We’d take the city bus downtown after school to meet friends who’d be sitting on swivel stools along the lunch counter, talking a mile-a-minute. In front of them sat dishes of French fries, hot from the oil, along with an 8 ounce Coke a Cola. The air smelled of cheap make-up, aging waitresses wearing too much cologne, and the smell of grease from the fryer. We loved it.
My friends, Madeline, Gerry and I met there many afternoons. Gerry was boyish; we didn’t know the term Lesbian in those days. Madeline was ultra- feminine, and I was a little Tom Boy and a little feminine. Climbing trees with the boys during the day and dressing up to go out at night.
We were best friends, but as much as I loved sharing French fries with them, many afternoons, I would prefer to walk three blocks up Chapel Street to eat small Italian pastries in all the colors of the rainbow and drink a flavorful dark espresso at La Macchinetta.
The only seventeen years old there, I could sit and quietly observe the waiters and how they slithered…
