Woolworth's Lunch Counter

I have a wonderful first cousin (Martha Lewis Karpal) who periodically makes my day with an e-mail. Here is one that you too will enjoy.


"My mom (Arizona Lewis) would sometimes take me to Uniontown, PA to shop for things we really needed. We weren't there to just look, - we were there to buy clothes that were needed ...........and soon before ones I had were too small. Often she would help me up on to one of those twirly stools and I loved to give it a spin around. "One time - no more," she said. Mom taught me how to behave in public on that stool. I was not to stare at the other people. I was not to talk about any of the other people. I was to wipe my mouth with the paper napkin. I was not to talk loud. If I told her that the other people were talking loud - she whispered, "Never mind - They don't know any better - they may not have been lucky to have a mother to teach them anything. I didn't know why mom told me to never mind and yet she didn't like when I never minded. Life was a bit confusing on that stool that moved so easily but I had to keep it still. The hotdog made up for it. They don't make hotdogs that good anymore. And potato chips! She said, I was to smile if any adult said anything to me. I was to say thank you. She told me smiling would give me a chance to think what to answer if they had asked me a question. I smiled a long time I remember even if they only asked me what I wanted to eat. Then I remembered to say, "I want a hot dog."Potato chips came with the hot dog as a big surprise. But mom said, "Don't look like you never saw potato chips before." I would break the chips with my index finger and try to see what shape it made. Soon I was told that was playing with my food. So I ate them - every one before I forgot and broke them. The catsup was always Heinz since we weren't far from Pittsburgh, its birthplace. To this day I always buy Heinz Catsup - my mom never had any other kind in her house. It was the way we supported our state and thanked Pennsylvania for the free school books and free pencils and tablets with the state of Pennsylvania on the front. I sure would like to have one of those tablets with that map today. I would love to go back to Woolworth's lunch counter again with my mom. This time I would behave better and make my mom proud. Mom always told Daddy that we had gone to the lunch counter at Woolworths. My dad (James Walter Lewis) would have been in Sears looking at tools and other things that men used. He ate his hotdogs at home. Maybe he couldn't follow mom's lunch counter rules. "