Soft Drink Signs and the Busy Bee

By Denise Kincy

When I was a kid in the 60’s, my grandma would take me to the Busy Bee Café for breakfast on Saturday mornings. Hearty greetings would be shouted as we walked in the door.

My Texas hometown was small back then, and everybody knew everybody else.

The café was always packed, noisy with the clatter of plates and silverware, conversation and laughter riding on the wonderful aromas.

Spinning barstools of shiny silver metal with red vinyl covers lined the Formica counter.

The floor was black and white checked, and there were eight or ten booths with red and white vinyl seats, salt and pepper shakers, glass sugar dispensers, silver metal napkin holders and Louisiana hot sauce sitting in the center of each one.

The walls were covered with record albums and pictures of Elvis-- Myrtle’s true love, she owned the Busy Bee—and photographs of her shaking hands with famous people who’d passed through town and eaten there.

But what I remember best were the big round, red Coke signs and the brown Dr. Pepper signs.

My favorite was a Coke sign with a teenage boy and girl sitting at a similar counter.

Her blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail, and she was wearing a tight white sweater with a black poodle skirt.

The furry white poodle, with his round black button eyes and whiskers, was so cool. The boy’s neat, short hair was parted on the side and his nose was covered with freckles.

The cuffs of his jeans were rolled up above his white socks.

Their shoes were black and white saddle oxfords. They smiled brilliantly, as if the bottles of Coke they were holding made life perfect.

Seems those two knew something the rest of us would only come to learn later; life just about was.

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