Burlington

I grew up in Virginia. During the American Civil War, Virginia was a Confederate state. General Robert E. Lee’s army, the primary fighting force of the Confederacy, was called the Army of Northern Virginia. For most of the Civil War, the capital of the Confederacy was Richmond, Virginia. So you might understand why I thought I was a southerner.

In 1969 a new job took me to Burlington, North Carolina, and I found myself in a very insular culture. One Saturday morning I stopped at a diner for breakfast. I sat at the counter and ordered an omelet. The conversation went like this:

Me: “I’d like an omelet.”
Cook: “You want scrambled eggs?”
Me: “I’d prefer an omelet.”
Cook: “You want scrambled eggs?”
Me: “Okay, I’ll have scrambled eggs.”
Cook: “I know where you’re from.”
Me: “Where am I from?”
Cook: “You’re from up north.”

Oh, great. I’ve been identified as a Yankee, an outsider, because I ordered an omelet. Omelette is a French word, but omelets are eaten all over the world. Iranians add sugar to their omelets. Chinese omelets are served with brown gravy. A southwest or Western omelet is filled with diced ham, onions, and green bell peppers, though there are variants. In Spain, an omelet is filled with sliced potato. In Thailand, an omelet is fried in vegetable oil and served over steamed rice. In 1969, omelets were served everywhere in the world except, apparently, in Burlington.

When I was a kid, there was a New York Deli restaurant in Richmond. It was a hole in the wall kind of place – narrow and deep. Their food was delicious. My favorite was their hot pastrami sandwich with mustard on Jewish rye bread, dill pickle on the side. One day in Burlington I had a craving for a pastrami sandwich so I stopped at a supermarket to buy ingredients.

First I looked for the pastrami. I couldn’t find it. So I asked the manager of the meat department if the store had pastrami. His reply was, “What’s pastrami?”

Fast forward to 2013. I’m sure the people of Burlington know about omelets and pastrami by now. Well, I’m not really sure, but I’m hopeful.