PANCAKES AND PREJUDICE
"Little Black Sambo" - First published in London in 1899, this classic tale by Helen Bannerman tells the story of a little boy named Sambo who encounters four hunger tigers, outwits them, and turns them into butter, before returning safely home to eat a 169 pancakes for his supper.There was a new restaurant on the waterfront across from the beach and only a block from the pier. It was called Sambo�s and they made the best �Pan Cakes� you have ever eaten.
These pancakes were huge. They filled the whole plate. Pilled high with a round scoop of real butter melting on top. There were small glass pitchers of real maple and raspberry syrups. On another plate were the two eggs, Steve always had his �over easy�, four strips of thick bacon, or sausage, a huge mound of hash browns cooked on the grill just right and real thick yellow bread called �Texas Toast�. Steve loved to eat there and it became a regular hangout when Steve got older and moved onto a boat in the harbor near by.
There were story pictures of Little Black Sambo and a lion painted on the walls. There was a little story that went along with the pictures. Little Black Sambo had removed a thorn from the lion�s foot and they became friends. Well, that�s the short of it anyway.
The restaurant was very popular and soon there were Sambo�s everywhere. In fact, a Sambo�s could be found all across the nation. Franchising was just becoming the way to put in about ten years of hard work and retire. There was a training school in the town just to the south. Complete with a major kitchen and classrooms. The restaurant chain even had its own trucking line and cattle ranches and meat packing houses.
Sambo�s was very successful. Franchises that started out at a very low price were now very expensive. A lot of people made good money becoming a manager/owner. You could own up to fifty-percent of the business and even buy as much as five percent of other Sambo�s franchises, but there was a limit on how many you could invest in or something. But you could sell your shares of the one you owned at a profit and keep the shares of the ones that you invested in and then retire, still bringing you an income after you quit. I think McDonald�s started the trend, but franchising was hot.
Steve�s dad knew the owners. It was two men his father had gone to school with or something. Their names were Battistone and Battastemie. The story goes that one man, Battistone had the idea and Battastemie put up the ten grand to get it started. Steve recalled having dinner at both their homes and even a Christmas at one of them. Steve forgot which one. But he remembered seeing all the very expensive presents around a tree too big to fit in his house. Including a car that had an electric motor that you could actually drive.
Not everything stays the same. What you can do in one part of the country is not acceptable in another. Education levels weren�t the same everywhere and some people are just down right stupid by Steve�s way of thinking.
Now the only reason I brought that up is because it was one thing that seemed to Steve to be the hardest to understand.
The nation was going through some very big changes. One of which was �equality�. Sambo�s had gone through a lot of changes too, including the pancake. It later became a �dollar cake� and there was enough room to put the three strips of bacon, or sausage, and eggs on the same plate next to the small pile of hash browns, along with three pieces of regular thin bread, toasted and cut in half.
But they did keep the ten-cent cup of coffee. While coffee prices were going elsewhere for twenty-five and fifty cents, and you had to pay for any re-fills. Sambo�s advertised the �bottomless ten cent cup�. They didn�t even charge for re-fills. And if you brought in your Sambo�s Thermos, they would poor hot water into it to pre-heat it and then fill it full with coffee for only a dime and it didn�t make a difference which one you went to, they all did it.
Another change was the walls no longer carried the tale of Little Black Sambo and how doing �good� for someone can turn enemies into friends.
As racial tension mounted in the south, business were being accused of prejudice in hiring practices. Sambo�s was one of them. Some of it may have been true in the South. But Steve never saw it where he went.
People in the south were offended by the name �Little Black Sambo� and claimed it showed that the chain was indeed prejudice. Sambo�s lost its day in court and was closed down.
Steve figured that was the most stupid thing he had ever heard of. Sambo was never �Black� like Africans; he was an Indian from India, complete with a turban on his head. And the tail of Sambo helping the Lion had nothing to do with putting down black people struggling for equality. It was an Indian proverb, from India.
Steve never could understand prejudice. All of his young life his parents introduced him to every kind of nationality you could think of. He had dinners and Christmases at different people�s homes and there were the people at church and it seemed to Steve that everybody was just that, everybody; and everybody was different.
They ate different foods and some had meals at a different time of the day. His neighbors on Islay Street, where he burned down their fence, they eat their dinner at noon.
Tacos at one home, spaghetti at another and sausages at yet another and some wouldn�t eat meat on Friday. Steve figured he understood that, he wouldn�t eat peas.
Steve had met Playboy Bunnies, Private Detectives and Secret Service Police in his parent�s own kitchen, and movie stars ate at the same places he did; like Sambo�s.
Fess Parker ate at Sambo�s a lot. He would come in early in the morning and have breakfast before going out to his boat for a trip out on the water. He seemed to Steve to be a very normal and an exceptionally kind man. He was always polite and willing to share a conversation. And he didn�t get up-set when someone would interrupt his meal and ask for an autograph. Can you imagine how annoying that could be? Steve never asked him for an autograph, but he always wished he had.
Oh. Of-course. Sorry for that. Should have told you who he was the first time his name was mentioned when telling you about Steve�s Grandfather and the oranges Steve would devour. It figures you wouldn�t know who he was. He was before your time for sure.
Fess Parker was an actor that played a television series for Disney Pictures called �Davy Crocket�. He did some movies too. Or maybe it was he did the movies and then Disney put them on the TV later. It�s hard to actually recall. It�s easy to forget, as you get older. No. He did the movies and then Disney put them on the TV. Yup, that�s it.
Anyway, people were always just people to Steve. Each was establishing his or her terms by how they treated others when you dealt with them one-on-one. And Steve met a lot of famous people when he was growing up. Not all of them famous when he met them, but some of them produced or had a hand in many projects that later became part of our culture. Like �Jesus Christ Supper Star� and �Hair�. People were just people. Some of them very nice and some of them Steve would make a point of staying away from.
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