Hopped Up Hashbrowns

When I was much younger, I took a creative writing class and although I don't remember much from that class, the one thing I do remember is the teacher telling us to write one word in the middle of a piece of paper and any thought that came to mind to drawn a line off the word in the middle and just do a "mind dump". Teacher said "don't question it, just write the words".  So, I've done that a lot since learning the technique.  This morning I woke up and "hopped up hashbrowns" popped into my mind and here's why.

When we lived in Yuma, we sometimes stopped at Penny's Diner for a bite to eat, usually when we were heading out on the motorcycles. Penny's Diner is a 50's style diner complete with the shiny silver walls on the outside and awesome 50's music inside. Gene would always order one pancake, which filled a huge plate and cost him a whole whopping .95 cents. Nobody loves a good deal more than Gene!  I discovered the hopped up hashbrowns, which are a meal in and of itself. We always sat at the counter so we could talk to the cook while watching him make our "lite" breakfast before we hit the road. I don't know if we ever knew his name but he had a ponytail, a few teeth missing and the most genuine, warm, friendly attitude you could ever ask for in the guy who's fixin' your breakfast. He was always talking smack to the waitresses and making them laugh.  We guess he may have spent some time in the slammer but you could just tell that he was loving life now and he took pride in everything that hit his grill.  You gotta love that.  I've tried to make my own version of hopped up hashbrowns but they fall short. Probably because I don't have a container of liquid butter to squirt all over those potatoes while they're sizzling on the grill. By they way, the hopped up part is a side of jalapenos, onions, red peppers, and mushrooms grilled on the side and placed on top of the crispy potatoes right before they're served with a sprinkling of cheese on top.

I'm not sure why my mind took me to Penny's Diner this morning except that over the weekend we went out to see the balloon festival in Prosser.  It reminded me of going to see the balloons in Yuma.   Those were good times!   I'm still having good times and I have a real need to write it down.  Gene is always reminding me about places we've been and sometimes I can't remember what he's talking about. It's never the other way around.  My guy has a memory for every twist and turn we've been on.

Just yesterday, he said "do you remember that store we went into in Butte, Montana where the lady had all those cast iron skillets?  YOU KNOW, Susan, the place where we bought the big grill!"   I wish I could remember it all but the fact is my brain is like a hard drive that is too full.

I couldn't find a link for the Penny's Diner in Yuma but here's one that looks exactly like it in New Mexico.  http://www.justgoodeats.com/restaurants/show.php?record_ID=21