Sometimes I'm so forgetful I suspect I'm getting old(er), but I take comfort in remembering a time at the Santa Fe Cafe in La Junta when I was only 16 years old and I know I've always been a bit absent-minded. Recently I was reminded of that restaurant.

Thanks to a noisy brake one day, I was spending a couple of hours in downtown Derby. I thought that I would have to rent a car for the weekend but when I got to Mr. Bill's garage, bless their hearts, they said they could fix the car in a couple of hours. Considering the fact that if I waited those two hours it would save me $36 a day I spent some pleasant time wandering around.

Derby downtown is a good place to stroll. There's the doughnut shop, it's been in the area since 1929 and there's the dollar store with many interesting things. I'm partial to the plastic mugs, they remind me of the old A & W root beer mugs but they are lightweight and only cost $1.00.

Downtown Derby has Hi-Lo Market. That grocery store is a lot like the ones we went to when I was growing up and I know many people won't shop anywhere else. There are other nice stores, too in downtown Derby.

As I wandered around the little town it was early so I looked for a place to eat breakfast. It seems to me you can find two kinds of restaurants these days, fast food or luxury places with extremely high prices. Commerce City is fortunate, it has several nice, moderately priced restaurants. I ate at Granny's for the first time the day before my brakes got noisy. She has a nice salad bar that included soup, salad, pudding, rolls and the best little cookies. I ordered the stew too but the salad bar would have been plenty. On this Friday I noticed that Granny's didn't have breakfast so I walked around the block to Rusty's. I had eaten in the restaurant when it was in the old building but hadn't been there since they moved.

I read in the Beacon about the reopening of Rusty's by two sisters. I was greeted immediately by one waitress and a cup of coffee. For $3.00 I got biscuits and gravy and good service. My cup was kept filled the whole time I was there. Since I was once a waitress I sympathize with them. I know it's a hard and sometimes thankless job. The warm-hearted feeling and ready smiles at Rusty's brought back memories of the Santa Fe Cafe in La Junta.

Rusty's has a 50's atmosphere but it's not only the decor or the food that made it nice, it's the friendliness that gives it the old fashioned pleasant feeling. As I sat there my memory went back to by-gone days.

Restaurants and cafeterias have always held a fascination for me. We didn't go out to eat too often when I was a girl, there wasn't much money. When we DID go out it was a special occasion and probably paid for by my grandparents when they came to visit. We went to very special places, like Clifton's Hawaiian Cafeteria in Los Angeles, where we ate in a thatched hut with rain falling on the roof. A fountain gave us green punch to drink and we could help ourselves to cups of ice cream from a rock well.

Even though we didn't go to restaurants much I did the next best thing. When we lived in Arkansas I opened my own pretend restaurant in the space below our house. I had some play dishes and I served meals of mud to imaginary customers.

My first job as a waitress was at the Bluebird Cafe in La Junta and my boss was Barney Minch who could yell like an angry animal with little effort.

Then I got an offer and went to work at the Santa Fe Cafe. It was smaller than the Bluebird but my wage went from 25 cents to 40 cents an hour and I felt like I was rich. The Santa Fe Cafe had a friendly atmosphere. There were three booths and a counter. The owner, my boss, Mrs. Jordan was the cook and I waited on tables. She trusted me to do everything. I had always wanted to cook, but didn't get to try it at home so I loved the experience of being in the kitchen once in awhile. I worked in the evenings and from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. in the mornings before school. The morning shift was my favorite because the regulars who came in were cheerful. I got acquainted with them. I liked waiting on tables because I met interesting people, not to mention an interesting boy or two.

The Santa Fe Cafe never seemed very busy until one day when the phone rang. I answered it. It was for my boss so I went to call her, but someone asked me for something and I got sidetracked. Probably half an hour later Mrs. Jordan noticed the phone hanging off the hook and asked me who was using it. Suddenly I remembered the call. Of course the person was long gone and I gasped, remembering the woman who had wanted to talk to Mrs. Jordan. I told her about the caller and wondered if she would yell at me like Barney Minch did. To my great relief she just laughed and said whoever it was could call back. Whew! She was a good boss and never did raise her voice to me.

I worked for the Santa Fe Cafe until I went to Iowa to go to school. That short time was my whole career in waiting tables. I never got a chance to work in a restaurant again. It wasn't that I didn't want to be a waitress. I liked it and enjoyed being around people. I wanted to go to work in a cafe after I was married and even had a job but my husband threatened me with divorce if I took it so I decided the wise thing would be not to go to work. Since I was a good typist he wanted me to go to an office so that's where I went. My short career as a waitress was over.

But I still remember the cozy atmosphere in that Santa Fe Cafe and enjoy going into a place like Rusty's where I can remember that it isn't only old age that makes me forgetfuI. I was absent-minded when I was young, too.