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“Dad
eats pepper with a side of bacon and eggs,” explains his
daughter. “He likes
to cover his food black with pepper.” The Gearys arrive at 6:05
each morning, just after cook Robbie Musgrove opens.
Musgrove
and his mother, Mary, have been operating a downtown restaurant
for 21 years. The
first 11 years they served up breakfast and lunch from a diner on
McLean Street. In 1990, just after their hamburgers were named
“best in the county” by the Courier, the Musgroves moved to
their current location at 229 S. Pulaski St.
[Mary's Cafe on Pulaski Street]
Jack
Bartelmay and Tom Seggelke have been morning regulars since
Mary’s moved to Pulaski Street.
They are part of the early shift, when Robbie serves
breakfast, pours coffee and comments on the excessive margin calls
that compounded last week’s stock market slide.
Other
regulars of the early shift are Bob Kidd, this morning donning an
Illini hockey cap; Virgil Barringer, who cleans the Alley-Bi
tavern next door after breakfast; Bob Franklin, who transferred
from the 9 o’clock shift when that shift began dying off; Joe
Rabbitt; Dave Piercy; Terry Sabo; and a few snowbirds who
haven’t found their way back to Lincoln yet this spring.
[Rob Musgrove pours coffee for early morning shift.]
Sometimes
the shifts overlap, so news travels. Rosie Dolson, who usually
arrives after 8 a.m. when Mary takes over, is in the hospital, and
the early shift clientele shake their heads with concern.
Bob
Kidd points to the shelf of knickknacks above the cash register
and explains that it is Mary’s gift shop, just like at the
Cracker Barrel. Robbie,
proud of the comparison, says that the items are “from all over
the world, but mostly from China.”
“Rob’s
a big free trader,” Kidd chimes in.
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Talk
turns to the future of Lincoln Junior High School and Central
Elementary School, two buildings slated to be replaced, and Robbie
suggests that the district sell the old bricks or let alumni swing
a sledge hammer at the old edifices for a dollar a blow.
“When
did the high school move out of the old building [current junior
high school]?” Seggelke asks.
“I
think it was 1958,” Kidd offers.
“I
thought it was before 1960,” Seggelke adds, sipping some coffee
and scanning the morning newspaper.
[Morning regulars at Mary's]
But
the conversation isn’t always this lively.
Sometimes the morning shift just eats their bacon and eggs
and watches the rain fall on Pulaski Street.
It’s all part of the morning ritual.
Henry
Boeke walks by with his dog. “He’ll be in for coffee after he takes the dog home,”
explains Bartelmay.
[LDN]
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