A Conversation about Hash Browns
During a visit to a Casey's in Knoxville, Iowa
Violet the Dog and I were running late this morning when I pulled into a Casey’s in Knoxville to get a quick breakfast before heading to Cedar Bluffs Natural Area in Mahaska County for our morning walk (I write about what we see at Cedar Bluffs here. Violet the Dog and I are volunteer park stewards).
I had hoped to get there before sunrise to take some photos, but at 5:10 am I was running a little late.
I pushed open the door and walked in. Below is an approximation of the conversation I had with two middle-aged women who were running the store. I see them regularly and know their names, but I’m going to call them Lady Number One and Lady Number Two. I was the only customer at the time.
Lady Number One: Morning, how are you?
Me: Good, you?
Lady Number One: Good…
I grabbed a breakfast burrito, a hash brown, and a Propel, which helps keep me hydrated on our sometimes two-hour walk.
Me: Thanks for having hash browns. You aren’t the closest Casey’s to my house, but they almost never have hash browns anymore, so I came here. Lady Number One smiled, her eyes lighting up, and Lady Number Two came out from the kitchen to join the conversation. She had a big smile on her face, as she almost always does. It’s a mischievous smile which makes me wonder what she knows that I don’t.
Lady Number One asked me which Casey’s (we have four) and I told her. The three of us talked a bit about that store, hash browns, and other important stuff while I paid. I grabbed my food and started out the door.
Me: Thanks so much for the food, especially the hash browns!
Lady Number One (with a happy look on her face: Thanks for coming to our store. It means a lot to us.
Lady Number Two (with her big smile): We’ll always be here for you, hon!
The burrito and hash brown sat warm on the dash of my old truck as I pulled out of the parking lot onto Highway 14, and then a minute later onto Highway 92 eastbound. I don’t know what Violet the Dog was thinking about as we drove into the sunrise, but I was feeling good about the two ladies at Casey’s who had just made my day.
By simply being proud of their work and their store and by being kind to a man on a hunt for a hash brown.
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I’m a proud member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please check out our recent work here. I also publish Cedar Creek Nature Notes, about Violet the Dog and my adventures on our morning walks at Cedar Bluffs Natural Area in Mahaska County, Iowa.
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I love this story so, so much. I had exactly the same morning ritual at a gas station convenience store in Georgia. They had a great fresh breakfast biscuit case and an actual kitchen in the back. Long daily lines of mostly men looking like they were headed to jobs where they'd work off that meal in short order. One morning, I asked if I could just have the biscuit, no eggs, no cheese, no sausage. “You're saying you just want the biscuit? By itself?” the always rushed, always stern woman asked. “They're works of art,” I said, “I don't want anything else to hide that.” She just stared for the longest time and finally said, quite softly, “Here you go. And thank you.” Huge smile. i stopped there nearly every workday and got that biscuit with her smile. They remain the standards against which both are compared to this day.
I love how you take the simplest moments and spin them into gold. Also, what a good dog Violet is not to go for hash browns and burrito