You Can't Go Home Again: Sweet Tea Edition

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura) 06/25/2018 at 21:37 • Filed to: None

7

26

As a practice in life, I don’t drink tea, but today, I made an exception. This is Manny’s Burger in Fairmont Park, Norfolk, Virginia. In 1983, I worked maybe a quarter mile away at my first real job and I ate the Manny Burger Special for lunch every day. In 1983, the Special was $2.10. I got on well with the woman who ran the place, and she’d let me pay her on payday for my lunch on the weeks when I was short.

You can see Pops’s red Fusion (excellent car, BTW) and behind the Fusion, in the shade of the tree, I ate my lunch and smoked my desert each day.

The Manny’s Specia l today is better than the special of 35 years ago. For one thing, they take the time to brew the tea on the stove and it’s excellent. A little sweeter than I’d make it for myself, but not too sweet to enjoy it . They put a little slice of ham up with the cheese and nowadays, they’re using a higher grade of ham, as well as fresh, non-frozen patties. The temperature was mild, there was a nice breeze, and lunch at the picnic table in the shade of the tree couldn’t have been more enjoyable . Fortunately, there are a precious few things that never seem to change.

Matt Nichelson > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2018 at 22:04

0

Hold onto those things, my friend. The world around us may be falling apart, but it's nice to know that a slice of the good life is still around if you know where to look. 

jkm7680 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2018 at 22:08

0

If you do not like sweet tea, you are a communist.

wafflesnfalafel > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2018 at 22:09

0

L ove those kind of places - not many left. We have a “Scott’s Dairy Freeze” that played a significant role in my adolescent life...  Folks really should search out such operations - well worth the bit of extra effort than just hitting the Chik fil A...

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2018 at 22:16

1

I never pronounced the ‘s. It was always Manny Burger to me. As E92Matt said, there just aren’t many places like that left in the world. People would rather eat at cookie cutter places that are the exact same from town to town. That food is always serviceable, but stepping outside of one’s food comfort zone can lead to some extraordinary experiences.

It’s good to see that Manny Burger is still there. I will soon have very few ties to that area, and probably no reason to go back. Back in the day, I pondered the meaning of your titular adage. I thought, “That’s BS, you can always go home.” Once I moved away to college, I realized that it is true. You can go back to the physical place, but it’s just not home any more. And, while that’s a little bit sad, it’s also entirely okay.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Matt Nichelson 06/25/2018 at 22:18

1

Dude: so true. Today for lunch I got priceless for just over seven bucks.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > jkm7680 06/25/2018 at 22:18

1

Maybe I don’t like it as sweet as you do, so you are less of a communist than I am.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > wafflesnfalafel 06/25/2018 at 22:19

0

I gave ‘em a nice Yelp.

jkm7680 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2018 at 22:19

1

I need diabetes on tap for it to be proper.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > jkm7680 06/25/2018 at 22:19

1

Comrade!

jkm7680 > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 06/25/2018 at 22:22

0

uhoh

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 06/25/2018 at 22:22

1

And the kids become the grownups. D’s the one who gave me that title when I was going to go get the Manny burger last week but it was 95 degrees and jet lag. I went today instead and as I say below, for seven bucks, I got priceless.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2018 at 22:26

0

for seven bucks, I got priceless.

There’s a huge difference between cost and value.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > jkm7680 06/25/2018 at 22:26

1

They gave us a bigger cup of tea in 1983.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2018 at 22:38

0

Sweet tea is an abomination. There’s a reason unsweetened  iced tea exists and why good servers won’t refill it until it’s empty.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2018 at 22:53

0

I once hit the college cafeteria area years after college and was deeply disappointed that the dirty stuff that I wanted so badly they no longer make.

Most of the old places are gone, from the taco carts to the old local grocery store that we shopped at. Rosewood’s moved from Norwalk to Cerritos, too, so five points doesn’t even feel like a place anymore. On the upside, I can still roll into an In-N-Out or a greasy burger shack (the few that remain) in the SGV and still feel a tiny bit of home.

I’m glad that some good memories are still alive and well where you came from. Many of us can never truly go back as those places no longer exist.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 06/25/2018 at 23:03

1

Indeed.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 06/25/2018 at 23:04

0

Stop tryin’ a kill the vibe.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 06/25/2018 at 23:05

1

The truth is that the we that went to those places no longer exist.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2018 at 23:14

0

Perhaps. In some cases we died or were pushed out by financial situations and progress.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 06/25/2018 at 23:33

0

We change. We’re as different as our former places.

Tohru > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2018 at 23:43

0

The important and unasked question - how was dessert?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Tohru 06/26/2018 at 05:21

0

I haven’t checked the des ert [sic] menu in thirty years or more .

Lokiparts > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/26/2018 at 09:04

0

What a fantastic trip down memory lane. I will have to make a point to swing by there someday.just to give it a shot.

Coincidentally, my in-laws actually own a small hotdog & BBQ lunch shop not far from there c a l l e d L e w ’ s H o t d o g s . It was originally opened by my wife’s grandfather, L e w . H e passed away a few years back b u t her parents have kept it going e v e r s i n c e . I t ’ s a n o t h e r o n e o f t h o s e c o o l h o l e i n t h e w a l l s p o t s t h a t h a s j u s t b e e n t h e r e f o r e v e r . I w a n t t o s a y t h e y ha v e been operating in the same spot in Norfolk for something like 60 years now.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Lokiparts 06/26/2018 at 15:22

0

Manny’s has a good burger and good tea. There was a hotdog joint not far from Manny’s back in the day that we tried once, but the clientele was a bunch of tough guy tradesmen quite a bit older than we were — like 18 — and I shied away from returning. Can’t say if it was Lew’s or not. I bet I ate Manny’s for lunch a hundred times or more back in the day.

I was I'm town to help out my parents in a quest to downsize and retrench. Dad received a _diagnosis_ and he's slowly but steadily losing his marbles.

Lokiparts > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/27/2018 at 08:00

0

It may have been Lew’s, but honestly I don’t know what kind of customers they had 35 years ago. I know as long as I can remember they’ve mostly catered to older retired guys, police officers (as one of the Norfolk Police department s i s right down the street), and people working in the various manufacturing businesses and offices in the immediate area.

B u t I ’ m s o r r y t o h e a r a b o u t y o u r d a d . T h a t i s a h a r d t h i n g t o g o t h r o u g h . M y grandfather w e n t through something s i m i l a r n o t l o n g a g o .  

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Lokiparts 06/27/2018 at 09:23

1

Thanks. But I feel peaceful about it. Good T hings can happen in the shadow of a Bad Thing.