Welcome to Poetry Friday! This week Laura Purdie Salas is hosting us HERE. Be sure to stop by on your Poetry Friday travels. Thank you, Laura!
Lately I’ve been thinking about the privilege I had of growing up in a busy family restaurant.
This is the awning by the front door.
But, I didn’t always think it a privilege at the time.
My parents were always working. There were no days off in the summer. My four siblings and I worked, too, eventually. As a teen, it seemed such an unfortunate plight. Like most kids, I had little idea how lucky I was that good food was ubiquitous and my parents made a good living.
But the cooks, waiters, and bartenders and customers arriving each day, in addition to my family, have given me much to think and now, more than I have in the past, to write about. I’ve been writing poems for kids inspired by all the hustle and bustle. The dishwasher room next to the kitchen, was an interesting, if rather grim place. I have no picture but maybe this poem describes it.
Here’s one:
RESTAURANT DISHWASHER With a splashety-splash, a whoosh and a slosh Our big metal monster sure knows how to wash! Its giant door opens and the dishes slide in and rumbling, moaning and whining begin. It hides in the back room, in a hot steamy huff ready to tackle the grossest of stuff— forks spoons and knives, greasy and slick, nozzles and suds, it knows every trick! Takes courage to run it. Dishwashers are brave, and to even walk past it, you better behave. © Janice Scully 2022 (draft)
This is my last postcard this season, from the amazing artist and poet Michelle Kogan. See how she captures the movement of this tiger, the bent forward leg, its gaze forward.
Listen for tiger's
footsteps,
If you can't hear them
listen harder . . .
©Michelle Kogan 2022
Tiger tiger
by twilight
are you there
wishing the night?
Heed their call
prevent their plight . . .
© Michelle Kogan 2022
Thank you Michelle for this tribute to tigers. And thank you Laura for hosting. Have a great weekend!
Hi, Janice – LOVE this post. What an amazing growing-up you had…. Both my hubby and me, and our two grown kids, have had various food service experiences – I think everyone should! ;0)
One of mine was working in the Dining Hall at my federal Work-Study job back in the day in college, and your poem describes a big ol’ institutional dishwashing machine perfectly! I can still feel that hot steam….
Thanks for sharing Michelle’s wonderful work, too, which I did today as well. And belated thanks for sharing my card and all of them in these recent weeks – such a great way to start a year!
What a wonderful voice you gave to your “RESTAURANT DISHWASHER” I feel like I’m right there in between the “splashety-splash, a whoosh and a slosh!” It’s funny I worked as a waitress at a handful of restaurants, but I can’t remember the dishwashing area. I just remember the very hot cooking area where we dropped orders off and picked them up. Thanks so much for sharing my Tiger postcard and poems Janice, and lovely description you gave too!
I love your memories of your family restaurant – you brought back a memory for me of using one of those dishwashers when I worked at a summer camp. Since then I’ve often thought nostalgically of how quickly it could wash the dishes (something like 10 minutes?). Your poem has such wonderful sound words in it – whoosh and slosh – it just insists on being read aloud! Thanks for sharing your poem (and Michelle’s lovely poem and art) with us today.
Janice, your growing-up-in-a-family-restaurant would make a great setting for a middle grade novel… just saying… xo
I know, I have a couple plots forming and taking shape. It’s been hard figuring out the story but the more I think about it, the more detail comes to mind. It’s been interesting.
The restaurant biz from a (grown up) kid’s perspective is endlessly fascinating, Janice. And your Dishwasher poem captures the essence of such an important beast within the business – “It hides in the back room, in a hot steamy huff” – brilliant! 🙂
Oh my, Janice, I love this poem and learning about your own family’s restaurant. Every part of the poem shows how it ‘really’ goes; “to even walk past it, you better behave” made me smile. My son’s high school job was running the dishwasher at a local restaurant & what he told us, yikes! I love Michelle’s poem & sketch, too, a good message for us all to remember!
Wow, you brought this behemoth to life! What fun, Janice!
Love hearing about your family restaurant adventures, Janice. I’ve always thought it would be fun to own a restaurant — but of course it’s SO much work, so I’m looking at it from a romantic perspective. Your poem is full of wonderful sensory details. If not a middle grade novel setting, what about a collection of restaurant poems? 🙂
Janice, I remember your photos of the restaurant from a previous post and am intrigued by the giant dishwasher. I remember waitressing at Friendly’s when it first arrived in Syracuse but can’t remember the dishwashing area. You made it come to life with your great poem for kids (this adult loved it too.)
Thanks for sharing my postcard poetry last week.
You captured the essence of a restaurant in your poem. One of my friends when I was growing up had a restaurant and I always thought that was so cool.
Your restaurant dishwasher is fabulous. Full of action and imagination.
And how wonderful is Michelle’s art and poetry. Lovely!
Now that I AM a dishwasher (aka Kitchen Assistant at Sur la Table), this poem definitely has an immediacy for me!
I love your dishwasher poem! How wonderful to look back on your childhood and see blessings you didn’t even realize at the time!
Janice, your poem begins in a flurry of onomatopoeic words mingled with rhyme and strong verby action. There is also a sense of no nonsense and a degree of implied menace surrounding this sudsy machine. Enjoyed it immensely. Your rich background knowledge shines through in your word choice.
I”m excited t learn that you’re working on poems about the restaurant. It is such a singular, concrete experience you can share. The dishwasher poem makes it sound like a lot more fun than it maybe was sometimes. I like S3 and the image of a monster hiding!