dinner (10.12)

turkey & pastrami reuben
chips
iced tea

we've been having turkey reubens lately. that is, turkey breast cold cuts rather than pastrami in a reuben. this time we had turkey and beef pastrami in the house so we had a reuben made with half turkey and half pastrami. pretty good.

i think the first place i ever had a turkey reuben was the old American Cafe. i think they called it a California Reuben. i would guess that now the turkey reuben is more common than the pastrami reuben.

when i was in college i was once asked to help a family with a move. my older brother knew some of the members of the family and they needed someone to help with shifting the heavier pieces. since the person moving was the daughter and she was moving from a trailer in Richmond to an apartment in Richmond, i needed to spend a long day Saturday helping with the move but i'd get $100 for the deal. at that time it took me more than a week to make $100 so i agreed to the deal.

i didn't know that the young woman was moving because she was breaking up with her live-in boyfriend and that he would be in the house for the whole move. the young woman was sad and ashamed and clearly just wanted this day to be over. i don't think she ever acknowledged me and i did me best to be part of the scenery. the young man was apologetic and upset and tried to do far more of the work than one person should have done. the girl's family was absolutely on edge just wanting to be out of that trailer and away from the young man so they could pretend that this was just a move. so of course it took forever to move everything out of the trailer. it was muddy and the trailer door was narrow and the plywood we were using as a ramp kept slipping out of the door.

once we finally got away from the trailer and the girl waved good bye to the guy (he wanted to hug, she wouldn't), everyone relaxed visibly. the move into the apartment went much more smoothly.

when the move was complete the mom and dad were much more relaxed. we stopped at Bob's Big Boy somewhere near Richmond. The dad told me that if i'd never had a reuben i was in for a treat. i ordered the reuben and really liked it. that was the first time i ever had a reuben. i wish i could remember the name of that family. i know they lived in Beechmont and that Mark was a friend of the girl or Mark's girlfriend was a friend of the girl or ...must have been 1979 or 1980.