Hemmingway

In 1933, Ernest Hemmingway wrote A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. It’s a story of two waiters working late one night in a cafe. Their last customer, a lonely old man getting drunk, is their last customer. The younger waiter wishes the customer would leave while the other waiter is indifferent because he isn’t in so much of a hurry. I had a definite, differentitated response to this piece of literature because in my occupation I …

…mind at all staying open later. The truth is I do, but not as much as I may think I do sometimes. I think I owe my customers a little common courtesy in taking their side into consideration. After all, when I’m their age, the tables might be turned. I may be hanging around in a bar, in need of a clean, well-lighted place, urging the bartender not to close the lights on me.