Thrifty's and Veal Cutlet (first published 10/12/20)

 

 Thrifty’s and Veal Cutlet


Many people think of the Woolworth Counter.  My dad and I ate at Thrifty’s Drug Store Counter.  You entered through the back door parking lot entrance, which was really the front door as no one parked on Van Nuys Blvd and came in the supposed front door.  The two semi-circle counters were just to the right of the door.  The two semi-circles were met in the middle with a straight stretch to connect the two together.  The kitchen was at the back in the middle.  There was a Formica tabletop that connected it all together.  There were red stools spaced evenly, probably seventy-five in all.  We normally sat on the side of the first semi-circle with our back to the window facing the parking lot.  Once or twice our usual seats were taken and we sat in the middle section.  I do not remember ever sitting in the other semi-circle, maybe because it was a different waitress.  I do not remember the waitress that well but do remember she was very nice and we had the same waitress every week and of course, she knew our order by heart.  Oh, I remember she wore a waitress outfit and not her street clothes and the outfit and her stylist hat had “Thrifty” written all over.  


Tuesday night was veal cutlet night.  Veal cutlet with white gravy generously poured over the top, mashed potatoes, and vegetable, most likely canned as that was preferred in the early 1960’s to the fresh stuff.  And it came with dessert, a cobbler with ice cream and a vanilla rum sauce over the top, served hot.  We ate the same thing every week and that is the only day we went.  I never had another dish at the Thrifty’s counter as best as I can recall.  I do not know the price but I remember it being “the special” and my dad remarking, almost every week, where else could you get such a great meal at such a price.  I do remember really liking it, especially the dessert.  


This trip to Thrifty’s was a father, son event.  It occurred when I was about 11 years old.   (or maybe it was when I was 14 years old) Though I was not told much of what was happening, my parents separated and perhaps divorced about that time.  My mom went off to Europe on a cruise ship.  Perhaps I have blocked a lot out of my mind as I was clearly old enough to remember more of the details than I do, or even precisely when it happened, before or after by Bar Mitzvah.   So going to Thrifty’s that one night a week was apparently one less meal my dad had to worry about.  As my mom ended up being gone less than a year and my parents reconciled and perhaps even remarried, the Thrifty’s Tuesday night special ended.  Probably fifty veal cutlet meals or less.  Oh, that’s one hundred Thrifty veal cutlets, as the dinner plate always had two cutlets on it.  


One more thing about that Thrifty’s I really remember.  It had a tube tester right next to the food counter just inside that back door.  Each time our TV or radio would go out my dad would bring in a handful of tubes or different sizes and with different configurations and test each until he figured out which tube was burned out.  For some reason that seemed to happen a lot.  Maybe too much television watching, I don’t know.  

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