Trego's Mountain Ear

I was a freshman at MSU when I encountered Manny’s – formally Manny’s Burger Inn.  It was one of these old diners built into the space of an old railroad car – less than a dozen stools, usually all filled.

I’m remembering Manny’s because I’m seeing items resembling his menu offered in Eureka – steak, two eggs and hash browns.  When I first went into Manny’s a dollar bought a half-pound hamburger steak, with two eggs staring at you and a plateful of hash brown potatoes.  With coffee.  Two dollars and the upscale meal was a ribeye steak – but the eggs, hash browns and coffee were the same.

I suspect that it was John Bolen who introduced me to Manny’s – John had little appreciation for dorm food, so explored the classy eateries of Bozeman more than I.  In retrospect, I’m not certain that Manny wasn’t the man who invented cholesterol – but at seventeen I was much more capable of handling grease than I am at seventy five. 

Flo was the waitress.  I had watched her dress down several students who asked for milkshakes – so I knew better than to ask.  The rumor was that on rare occasions, she would offer to make a milkshake for students she liked – but the facts seemed to run more toward the fact that Flo didn’t like anyone.  She served the staple hamburger steaks with a cigarette dangling from her left lip, probably an inch of ash still attached – and the ash never fell into my food. 

When Spring came, I was in Manny’s by myself, and was shocked when Flo asked me if I wanted a milkshake with that.  Knowing Flo, I asked what flavor she recommended – and Flo told me strawberry.  I took it.  As my meal arrived, 3 more stools filled, and the denizens decided that they too needed milkshakes.  Flo dressed them down – making me feel at once shamed for getting better treatment than my peers yet simultaneously proud of receiving the legendary special treatment Flo occasionally gave.

Only once did I turn down a milkshake when Flo offered one – I explained that I only had the one dollar and couldn’t afford it.  I was shocked to find it substituted for my coffee.  Since then, I’ve realized that it wasn’t my wonderful personality that got me Flo’s special treatment.  It was the same courtesy that Grace Cuffe had expected at the school lunchroom in Eureka.  There were cool students who were rowdy at Manny’s – but Flo made milkshakes for folks who treated her with courtesy.

As I moved out of the dorms, I could cook for myself – and the grocery store was closer than Manny’s.  Rumor had it that lung cancer took Flo – not unanticipated, as the cigarette on the left side of her face was an identifying feature.  I don’t know if the story was true – by the time I returned Manny’s was gone.

Then, when I left MSU Extension and went to SDSU (Brookings, South Dakota) I drove down Main and encountered Nicks:

Burgers were up to two dollars when I retired and left Brookings.  At Nick’s, you didn’t get a cheeseburger – a slice of cheese was a condiment, available at extra cost.  Now, the menu online shows me that cheeseburgers are available.  Such is progress.  We would occasionally do dinner at Nick’s as Sam waited for her taekwondo class.