The Poem Behind the Corn

At Laube’s Cafeteria in Buffalo where my family often ate in the ‘50s, the following poem was on the wall behind the side dishes, more specifically the corn:

We may live without friends We may live without books But civilized men Cannot live without cooks.

I thought they had it wrong up there. I thought the words ‘books’ and ‘cooks’ should be interchanged. In my house, the reading material got more stars than the chicken.

I’ve been thinking about the poem. And about Laube’s Old Spain, another restaurant in Buffalo on Main Street, where we also ate regularly and would tell both the organist and our waitress it was one of our birthdays—on the date and not—so he’d play Happy Birthday and she’d give us a free piece of cake, but that’s a story for another time.

SO I’ve trekked you through my likes and dislikes in previous blogs. Here’s a short update:

I can’t live without: kindness, hugging, dancing, my family, friends, writing, curiosity, laughter, solitude, book editors, piano, books, and walks down lower Fifth Avenue.

I can live without:television, excuses, small-mindedness, my broken toes, and walking down lower Fifth Avenue in my stupid boot to the foot doctor, where I’m headed now.

What can you live without? What do you treasure? Share below. Let’s have a conversation.