Time to Make the Doughnuts

If you’re my age or older, you read the title and thought of the place we once called “Dunkin Donuts”, now simply called “Dunkin”. You probably remember the guy with the mustache who went into the shop before sunlight to make the donuts. My memory is a spin-off of this.

When I was little, my Mom would go shopping at Mid-City Shopping Center in Portsmouth, Virginia. I don’t think it exists anymore, but it had two things I remember – JC Penney and Dutch Maid Donuts. Mom only went to Mid-City to shop at what she called “Penney’s”. I tagged along because there was no other option, but Mom and I knew the donut shop could be leverage. Her idea of leverage was that would be my reward if I behaved in “Penney’s”. My leverage was manipulating the reverse and promising to behave if we “got the donut first”. My leverage worked every time. The problem was I got the donut first and acted like a hellion in JC Penney.

I would love to turn back time to a simple era such as that. A day when my simple childhood was much more relaxing than the pressures of adulthood. A day when Mom was still with us. My mind can still go back to the small little donut shop that smelled of doughnuts and old school coffee. You have to remember that this was the day before all the fru-fru coffees we have now. You know the kinds with all the funky colors, flavors, and names you can’t pronounce.

While I don’t know that there is a Dutch Maid Donut Shop anywhere now, my mind still goes back when I smell a cake donut or some old school coffee. Strangely enough, the world feels like a safer place. I guess it’s time to go find some donuts.