If you've read my award winning YA book, "
When the Bough Breaks", you know that it opens with a scene described as Fat Man's drugstore. The setting is 1967. That year I, too, was a teenager. That year, drugstores such as the one I describe as 'Fat Man's' existed to not only sell prescription drugs, but they also served hamburgers, fries, ice cream sundaes, and fountain milk shakes. So often -
frequently!- they became the place for high school-ers to hang out. Of course they would, what with that jukebox setting in the corner!
Last week I couldn't believe it when I walked into my local pharmacy and found an almost exact replica of how I pictured Fat Man's. I could almost see my hero, Parker, sitting right here on one of these stools!
He would have read the Coke advertisements displayed over the mirror.
Darlene, sitting in a booth with her sister, Gena, friend Margo, and heart throb, Roy, ordered their hot fudge sundaes from a counter like this.
And after enduring Parker's bold blue-eyed stare, when Darlene jumped up to leave the store and glanced back over her shoulder, she met Parker's gaze through the mirror. Oh yeah, you bet he winked at her.
So what happens next? After Darlene leaves Fat Man's (flushed by that flirty male wink!), does she discover a certain red T-bird convertible outside?
Who knows...maybe when I go back next week it really will be parked there!
