Slim Randles is here today as my guest, bragging on one of his friends. But first, a little bragging from me.
Actually, not bragging. Just an announcement. My short story, Escaping Raul,is now live for Kindle, and I am doing a giveaway. You can enter the sweepstakes HERE for a chance to win one of the 25 copies being given away. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. The sweepstakes will end on Oct 20, 2017 11:59 PM PDT, or when all prizes are claimed.
And I do love the cover that a graphic artist designed, so I guess that is a bit of a brag, but only on her talent.
Escaping Raul was written some years ago and was the inspiration for the story-line of Stalking Season, the second book in the Seasons Mystery Series.
So, enough about that. Here is Slim with his story about his friend, Delbert.
The food’s awfully good down at the Gates of Heaven Chinese Restaurant. The valley’s other Delbert, Delbert Chin, has been putting on a decent feed there since he came to this country many years ago.
We like that lunch buffet. All you can eat, of course, and he makes this pink sauce that’s out of this world. You can put it on everything. And you want to.
He asked me once why I used so much of it, and I told him if I had enough of that sauce, I could live on cardboard boxes and bedding straw.
But there’s something else about Delbert, too. He is so proud of how clean his kitchen is, he will drag strangers in to look at it. We’ve all been in there. At least once a year, Delbert will say, “You been in my kitchen? You come look.”
And we do.
If he doesn’t recognize you as a local, you definitely will get the kitchen tour. He insists we run our fingers along the top of the stove’s grease hood. We run paper towels behind the big stainless fridges. Under the stoves, too. Especially under the stoves. No grease, no dust, nothing. And he grins at the astonishment on our faces. But he keeps two teenage boys fairly busy cleaning – I mean scrubbing – that kitchen every day. You can tell when they’re working, because you can hear Delbert shouting instructions.
Oh, we have the usual health inspectors, as everyone does. But they don’t really need to go in there, and they know it. They’ll never red tag the Gates of Heaven. At any rate, Delbert knows customers have their own ways of red tagging a place that’s less than spotless, too.
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Brought to you by Slim’s new book The Fly Fisherman’s Bucket List that features 120 “reel” great places to fish in America before you kick it. The book, as well as all Slim’s books can be found at www.lpdpress.com
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Slim Randles writes a nationally syndicated column, “Home Country” that is featured in 380 newspapers across the country. He is also the author of a number of books including Saddle Up: A Cowboy Guide to Writing. That title, and others, are published by LPD Press. If you enjoy his columns here on the blog, you might want to check out the book Home Country. It features some of the best of the columns he has shared with us.