November 7: Denny's On A Friday

Denny's is open twenty-four hours a day and it's cheap. These two factors alone make it the perfect place for a group of rowdy teenagers to gather on Friday and Saturday nights; and that's exactly what we did.

When I was in high school, I did a lot of theatre. Drama kids are rambunctious enough on their own, but when you get a group of them together after a performance, their energy levels shoot through the roof. When you're really hyper and you hang out with a bunch of goody goodies, you don't just go home for the night. You don't go and get wasted, so you go to the local Denny's.

We would go to Denny's after every Friday and Saturday night performance. It would be about ten o'clock and the diner would be pretty vacant. Without warning, twenty to thirty kids would fill every booth and expect to be served right away.

It was on one of these fateful nights that a group of us that was only there for the camaraderie thought it would be a good idea to run around the building and pound on the glass windows where our friends were sitting. It would be hilarious because it would scare everyone inside. Doesn't that sound like a great idea?

We waited until everyone was settled down into the booths before running in a single-file line past the windows that overlooked the parking lot. The idea was to pound the glass, but by the time I got to the windows, there was shattered glass all over the bushes and grass between the building and the asphalt.

Of course, it wasn't any of the people that were running around. Why would it be one of us? (I don't know if these last sentences will be read with sarcasm, but they should be.) After standing around with dumbfounded looks spread on our faces, one person decided to take up a collection from all the runners to help pay for the window. I was pissed off that I had to pay anything at all because I didn't have any money; that's why I wasn't inside with everyone else!

We never did find out who the culprit was, but I think of that night every time I'm in San Diego and I pass the Denny's off of Main St. Tonight, I passed the Denny's on Main St. and I thought of that night. Another blog is finished.