Don't Take Me Seriously - Book - Page 75
ESCAPE Weekly
Continued from page 4
have been working here for years, each has
a favorite movie star encounter. Sometimes
they even get into the act.
“I got to be one of the waitresses during
a filming of an episode of “Studio 60 on
the Sunset Strip,” said Mindy Harper, a
former waitress.
Halfway House Café’s menu of hearty
meat-and-potatoes-type fare makes the
restaurant as popular with its customers as
Walker
Continued from page 16
You come out of a grocery store to find
a flyer advertising a strip club on your car
windshield, under the wiper. You look
at the girl in the photo, maybe too long,
and finally convince yourself you aren’t
interested. What do you do?
(A) Fold the flyer up for scratch
paper, or to recycle.
(B) Save it for, you know, “reference,”
for a future column.
(C) Toss it on the asphalt because it’s
the flyer-bearer’s responsibility and you
shouldn’t be burdened with the thing. He
littered, you didn’t.
(D) Chase down that flyer-bearer and
make him eat it.
For most folks without an anger
management problem, answer A seems
the best, in terms of making the world
a better place. While we’ve all probably
done C, and wanted to do D, these both
would put a tear in Mother Teresa’s eye
and maybe even earn you a crunchy
burger in the afterlife.
Pop Quiz Question 3 (Take your time
with this one.):
You are at a McDonald’s and a
teenager asks you for a dollar so he can
buy some food. Now, this kid does not
look homeless, and he has a cell phone
against his ear as he speaks to you. What
do you do?
(A) Say, “Not good English,” with a
Swedish accent and look confused.
(B) Tell him to get a job.
it is with filmmakers.
The restaurant is open seven days a week,
which is about as often as you can find it on
television. Even in the Yucatan Peninsula.
The Halfway House Café is located at
15564 Sierra Highway, Canyon Country,
4.6 miles north of Soledad Canyon Road. It
is open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 10
p.m. the phone number is (661) 251-0102.
the Web site is www.halfwayhousecafe.com.
(The web site contains clips of several of the
films that were made at the restaurant.)
E.J. Stephens can be reached at
deadwrite@yahoo.com.
(C) Make an overly-scowling face
and hand him a dollar.
(D) Give him the dollar and lecture
him on paying it forward.
I really have no idea what the right thing
to do is in this situation. Yeah, I gave him
a dollar. Then he bummed money from
another guy, ate, drank his soda, refilled the
cup and got into a car full of other affluentlooking teenagers that conveniently arrived.
He shared his soda with them. Both the
other guy and I saw all this. We exchanged
looks like we’d been had. Maybe we had
been had. But, somehow, being the fool
didn’t make me feel foolish.
Apparently, all my life lessons revolve
around McDonald’s or parking lots, but
that makes them no less valid. And if you
study karma, maybe you’d think I chose
such as my life’s classroom before I was
born. Well, I’ll make a more interesting
choice next time around.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m still
hoping I do big things in this world. If I
come across a shark threatening someone
in a parking lot, I’m golden. But, in the
meantime, I’m trying to do the small
things. What if everyone did?
So pick it up, share it if you can and do
the little things. And, as MT would say,
do it with love, baby — whether it comes
back to you or not.
Oh, by the way — you who left the
full soda cup in the parking lot today
… yeah, I stepped on it. Pretty funny.
But I forgive you. Maybe, in some way, I
deserved it. Still, I wonder what the statute
of limitations is on a grease trap burger.
I hope it’s not eternity.
SCV
the
to be
Jim Walker
Backlot
Oct. 16 - Oct. 22, 2009 – 18
Light the Night Saturday
T
he fourth annual Light the Night Walk will be held this Saturday,
Oct. 17, at Bridgeport Park in Valencia to benefit the Leukemia &
Lymphoma Society. The fourth annual Santa Clarita Valley walk
allows families, friends and community members to engage in a two-anda-quarter-mile stroll around the park
to raise funds for the Society’s battle
against blood cancer.
Games, refreshments and musical
entertainment will be available after
check-in at 4:30 p.m., followed by
a brief ceremony to honor those
afflicted with the disease.
As the sun sets walkers set out,
Courtesy Photo
each carrying a balloon lit by twinkle Marina Contreras poses with
lights. Messages of strength will her great-nephew Evan Gabor
be carried in the white balloons of at the 2008 Santa Clarita
patients and survivors, while red Valley Light the Night event.
balloons held by family and friends
show support. A gold balloon symbolizes a loved one who has lost their
battle with the disease.
“This event is one way that cancer patients and their families can take
charge of their own lives and help work towards a cure,” said Kathryn Scott,
Light the Night director. “Seeing all of these balloons twinkling together in
the crowd is a truly magical sight.”
“People gather teams together to walk for those they know with cancer,”
said Scott. “We have many teams of people who wear matching T-shirts with
their loved one’s picture on it. It helps create a strong network of support.”
Teams are composed of families and friends as well as local businesses and
organizations that want to reach out for the cause and walk with purpose.
Participants ask family members, friends, neighbors and business associates
to sponsor their walk by making contributions to the society.
Participant Marina Contreras used her family’s story to light the way for
others. Contreras is head of “Team Evan,” whose members organized over
three years ago to support a survivor they know.
Contreras’ great-nephew, Evan Gabor was diagnosed with acute
lymphoblastic leukemia when he was 23 months old. Still keeping up the
fight at age three-and-a-half, Gabor has undergone seven different phases of
chemotherapy as well as multiple transfusions and spinal taps.
Visit www.lightthenight.org/santaclarita.
