Babes Spill The Beans...DoloresHerland was celebrating Her Grand Opening when I saw Her for the first time. I was driving by and stopped to snap pictures of the festive purple balloons. I was collecting photos for a tiny book I was assembling, Purple Things in Santa Cruz. Said book remains a work in progress.
That Spring I was enrolled, along with twelve others, in a most enlightening class called, “The Religion of the Goddess”. Each meeting we brought some revered small amulet for our altar. One of our members was a young man and he brought something new and different every time. When asked where he had found his treasure, he either responded with, “Herland”, or “Everything’s a Dollar”. So my first trip into Herland Book café was to see the Goddess jewelry. What I always purchased when I visited the shop were buttons and bumper stickers. I bought lots of “ Commit Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty” stickers, a red and white “Blessed Be” bumper sticker for my white Valiant with red interior, and for very ill friends and their loved ones, “Magic Happens” buttons. I always find something .
My work at Herland began in the café. It was not the first time in my career that I made my living cooking and serving food. I love tips. We food service workers depend on them. Someone once told me about the Great Tip Jar of Life. If you don’t put something into it, you can’t get anything out. What doesn’t go around isn’t going to come around.
It was in the Herland café that the notion occurred to me that the patrons who didn’t tip us, ever, no matter how extensive the service had been, were doomed. These folks will, in the next life, find themselves in The Cosmic Lifeboat along with others who should have tipped the Herland Babes, but did not. These souls’ rescue would begin only when they could identify what it was that each had in common: not tipping at the now legendary Herland Café.
The next vision was, of course, of The Cosmic Ocean Liner with our lovely and generous customers aboard, relaxing and enjoying themselves, just basically having the time of their next-lives. And, no, I have not seen that third and most recent Titanic film. I knew how it was going to end. The nautical reference floated up by itself.
I would like to thank each of our fine customers by name, but fear that I’d omit a valuable one. Thank you again and again for all your business and best wishes to each of you. Blesséd Be!
Herland Crone Babe
Dolores
