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Ma Barkers Place
by John Davis Collins.....© 2002 by John F. Clennan, All Rights Reserved
This is a short item which evolved from discussions about one year ago with Donald Grant DeMan concerning a parade in New York that got so far out of hand that it made headlines throughout the world.
I told DeMan that New York was too complicated a place for general, unrestricted, unescorted tourism as it had such elaborate, unspoken ritual courtesies and proprietries that have given famed orville fabius pause to rethink his position on segregation. Thus leading to misunderstanding such as caused the problem at the parade between reveleers and tourists. John D. Collins
Ma Barker's Place:
Where the Republic and The Democracy Meet for LunchSaturday 2:15 PM sharp the fall of 1984, the pickups with the Rebel flag bumper stickers pulled up next to sparkling Cadillacs and Lincolns; white faces with long red sideburns or scraggly brown beards queued up with blacks neatly dressed in Suday best.
All waited for a glass door cut in the windowless brick wall of an old factory building. Flannel mingled at the door with fine dark suits. The Republic would meet the Democracy over lunch, at Ma Barker's, a Southern styled cafeteria.
Most were holding coupons from the local paper which touted "Southron" food and hospitality in a family setting. A major chain of Southern cafeterias was testing the New York market. And it was not an easy market to sell cafeterias to.
Cafeterias, though popular in the South and elsewhere, faded from the New York scene with the Great Depression, as a reminder of the extreme poverty of that era.
Who then had responded to the ad?
Among the whites, there were a few unbowed Rebels whom employment or marriage had brought "up-yonder." Most patrons, white ones that is, however had come into contact with the culture and cuisine of the Southland in the service.
I never came to know the connection of black patrons to the South. Beyond a polite nod or wave on entering or parting, though this was 1984 not 1948, there was little contact between the races.
Once the doors opened the flat fee was paid and all pushed cafeteria trays along a rail and filled plates with "Southron" delicacies.
And then the scramble for the tables began. Two tables were conceeded to the whites in an alcove near the door; the blacks took up the 10 tables in a large open area.
The tables were only a part of an elaborate unspoken series of social protocals in force throughout the time the cafeteria was in business.
Whites barely clung to two tables. If not enough whites showed up, the second table would remain vacant for a respectable period before it was taken up by blacks first at the end away from the white table.
Late arrivals among the whites could take up the part of the table nearest the white table.
Asians could sit either with whites or blacks unless of course they came with either a white or black person in which case they would sit with the correct race.
At the white tables dress varied from casual to raunchy. Most came in flannel or sweatshirts with dungarees. Black patrons were more genteelly attired in white shirts, and suits. Women wore dresses.
The restaurant appealed to a family crowd, but there were occasionally dating couples who would sit with the correct race. Dating couples were fair game for the mature group who touted their children playing under the table as the next Planned Parenthood Poster child.
I never saw a young couple of mixed race enter. I suppose this would not have been the sort of place.
Most children were well behaved. Here they could play together, hide under the table, or run up to the counter for as much ice cream as they wanted.
If a child had difficulty at the counter and was not assisted by a parent, a person of the child's race would come to assist. If no one from the child's race noticed the problem, then it would be proper for the other race to help. However if a person of the child's race came forward, appropriate and courteous deference would be rendered in favor of the correct race.
Similar rules applied to the elderly and infirm who could be helped by the other race if no one of their own race was available.
If an old Veteran from the Second or First World War decided to orate to one of the table, the manager would catch a patron going up for seconds. Usually the patron claimed not to have been bothered and offer a tip to bring the old boy some coffee.
And so without so much as a word spoken, these Rules went on for many months as the test marketing proceeded.
One day in the Spring the usual customers pulled up with rusted chevies next to cadillacs and the usual flannel mingled with sunday finery to wait for the doors to be thrown open. The queue formed but the door never opened.
A curious sort nudged up to the door and cupped his hands over his forehead to look inside. "There's nobody there!," he exclaimed.
The experiment had ended and no one warned us in advance. A few stood around silently stunned for a few minutes before driving off.
Today that building is a Home Depot. I occasionally pass by and wonder about the silly little rules and courtesies of the days when Ma Barkers Cafeteria tested the New York market. And of course I wonder in amazement at all those petty rules, ettiquettes and protocals we created on our own without any prompting. This is Mall-ology an RPPS Social Comment Creditted as indicated
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