Roy’s café was a gathering place for the locals of Deerwood. I know a lot of us had breakfast, lunch, or dinner there. You could see just about all that was going on in town from there!

Eventually I became old enough to go uptown from my grandma’s with my uncle who was 1 year older than me. We would walk up to Roy’s and have a chocolate shake or a cherry coke. I’m guessing that was in the late 50’s.

Well later in life when I got married and lived in the trailer court I would go to Roy’s daily! I worked for the city for a couple of years, and we had help in the summer. One summer we had a fellow who only brought 3 or 4 dollars for lunch every day and he would hitch a ride with another fellow from Crosby! Instead of buying lunch every day he would buy a pack of smokes at the store across the street from Roy’s and then would have just enough money left to get small pack of mini donuts. He would sit out in front of the grocery store on a bench and eat the donuts and enjoy a smoke or 2! 

The rest of us would have lunch at Roy’s and we always sat up by the counter near the kitchen. We could see our coworker sitting on the bench outside, across the street. One day this fellow decided to come in with us and sit. He had his donuts in his jacket pocket and I bought him coffee as his money was gone. He would sneak a donut out and eat it when he thought no one was watching!!! I had mentioned to him that Roy wouldn’t like it if he caught him eating those chocolate donuts! He almost had them gone and you know who spotted him?

Roy came over to our table, rested his arms on it and said, “How’s everybody’s burgers?”

We replied, “Everything tasted great!”

Then Roy asked the guy with the donuts in his pocket, “How about you there, weren’t you hungry?”

He replied, “I had some donuts I bought at the store, so I ate them!”

Well Roy had to explain to him how a restaurant works!!! And then he politely requested that he don’t do it again! 

The next day at lunch we went into Roy’s again. I was on edge, I didn’t know for sure what our coworker would do today. We could see him next door in the store! Well, he had a smoke outside and came into the restaurant to sit with us and I ordered coffee for him, then he went into the bathroom and was in there a while?

Well, this was in the fall of the year and a lot of duck hunters were there that day! Finally, there was a line forming in front of the rest room and there was knocking on the door and a couple of guys were trying the handle!

This caught Roy’s attention as he was busy in the kitchen and had a view of this scene! Roy came out and asked, “What’s the problem?”

One fellow said, “The door seems to be stuck!”

Roy said, “It’s not stuck. I fixed it last week. Someone must be in there!”

Roy pounded on the door and asked, “Who’s in there? There’s a line out here and what are you doing in there?” 

When the voice answered, Roy knew who it was and spoke, “You’re in there eating those dang donuts, aren’t you?!?!” 

The voice answered, “NO!” 

This brought a mild chuckle from the people in the restaurant, and shortly after that we heard water running and the door unlocked. Out came our coworker with a ring of powdered sugar around his mouth! Everyone in the place just roared! 

I’m not sure, but I believe our coworker brought a bag lunch after that and ate back at our workplace! 

Life is full of events that will put a smile on your face almost every day. You just have to keep your eye out for them! 

I miss Roy and his café, but I still like going there in memory!