Counter Bread: Subcultures in Small Towns

In a small, picturesque rural town in the northeastern corner of Washington, a sign that reads, "Welcome to Town: Home of 1,552 Friendly People and One Grouch," introduces you to the small city. Traveling north along a winding highway (the main thoroughfare), you will come upon a small restaurant where a local waitress first coined the term "Counter Bread." Little did she know that her offhand comment would come to define a specific subculture of thecommunity. She likened the men in this group to a loaf of bread that had been left on the counter until it molded, and no one had ever come around to take care of it.

These are the notorious and often wacky customers that have sat only at the counter of the restaurant for longer than anyone can remember.

These men have no families (that will claim them), will usually eat only at this particular restaurant, come in every day, and most would be deemed "crazy" by the local population. The "Counter Bread" have been kicked out of many (if not all) of the other local eateries, but the friendly faces behind the counter here will always welcome them. The people belonging to this subculture, with about twenty local members, are often extremely wealthy, hermit-like, and sometimes exhibit signs of obsessive compulsive disorder. The key aspects that set these men apart from the rest of the community are their lack of "normal" social skills, especially when it comes to having a "normal" conversation.

The first example of this subculture is an elderly man named Irving. He is the quintessential "Counter Bread" man. According to the waitstaff, he started it all. He has lived in this town his entire life and has never been farther than "the big city" (about 70 miles away). He eats ONLY at this restaurant. He does not eat at other restaurants nor does he cook food at home. He is in his seventies, has plenty of money (possibly from a pension or retirement plan) and would be termed "slow" by many. Besides the this restaurant, the only other place that he spends money at is the Toyota dealership, where he buys a new red pick-up every other year. He keeps every red Toyota pick-up truck that he has ever purchased. Not only does he keep each truck; he drives each truck for a set "purpose" for a set number of miles each day, keeping a very strict schedule between meals at the restaurant. Irving's two trademarks that remove him from "normal" society and place him with the "Counter Bread," are his inability to read and his near inability to speak clearly. Because he is illiterate, the cooks kindly choose his meals for him (one of the many "Counter Bread" perks available at the restaurant) and charge him the same no matter what he eats. His speech can only be described as very, very difficult to understand.

One well-known incident was when he kept asking the waitress for what sounded like "two spoons." She kept giving him more and more spoons until she finally understood that he was asking for a "soup spoon." Another example of his interesting style of speech began with another female employee. Irving began calling her "Lucy" which sounds somewhat like her actual name, so she never bothered to correct him. Henceforth, most other female staff at the restaurant were also called "Lucy" (he uses the nickname "Cookie" for all other females in his life). Like getting food without ordering, renaming people, as well as most otherwise unacceptable social behavior is tolerated and even expected from the Counter Bread.

The next example, Nick, shows just how far the "Counter Bread" will push the limits of what is and what is not acceptable for "Counter Bread" to do. Nick is only a recent addition to the "Counter Bread" culture. He moved to town six or seven years ago from Turkey. He too is in his seventies, has loads of cash at his disposal, and has been asked not to come back to most of the restaurants that he has patronized in and around town. Nick believes that aliens are constantly trying to abduct him, extract secret information from him, or trying to infringe upon his person in any manner of ways. He wears an obscenely large diamond ring around that keeps "them" away. He does not know how to drive, so he rides a bicycle, walks or is infrequently driven by his friend that occasionally checks up on him. When Nick eats at the restaurant, he will usually contain himself somewhat for a short period of time, but he is easily agitated. When this happens (usually because of increased alien activity) the volume of his voice rises as does the level of arm flailing, yelling, and a variety of other movements that most would deem general freaking out. However, all of this commotion can be avoided by giving Nick a pad of blank paper where he can write down all of his ranting and raving in a combination of Turkish, English and additional indistinguishable markings. Nick is now convinced that the unfortunate waitress that first brought him the pad of paper is going to marry him someday despite her unending refusal of his many, many proposals. When interacting with others in his sub-culture, Nick is infinitely choosy as to whom he will and will not associate with. In his mind, Irving is okay to sit next to, although Nick will sometimes say that he's a little "cuckoo." He will not sit near any "Counter Bread" that smoke cigars, but those who smoke cigarettes are fine-this eliminates about half of the members. Nick appears to dislike some for no apparent reason, although I'm sure he has his own, which leaves about ten to fifteen percent of the "Counter Bread" that he deems acceptable.

The final example of "Counter Bread" (one that Nick does not like) is Chad. Chad holds an interesting position in the world of the restaurant. He is a transitional figure between the "Counter Bread" and the "Coffee Drinkers" (another subculture at the restaurant that arrive fifteen to thirty minutes BEFORE the restaurant opens each day to come in a sit together and drink coffee for one, two, even up to five hours). Chad is unlike the rest of the "Counter Bread" in that he has a job, owns a car (and knows how to drive it), and can conform to societal standards of behavior when he wants to. However, like the "Counter Bread," he usually does not choose to conform to "normal" behavior, and he is somewhat of a social outcast (in fact, he is hated by most of the restaurant's customers that know him). For years, every morning, Chad bought the newspaper (25 cents), left it at the Gallea and deducted 25 cents from his bill (for a 50-cent cup of coffee). When asked about it, he would lie and say he had paid the full amount and act incredibly indignant. Eventually, the "Coffee Drinkers" got sick of his perpetual tirade over a quarter and began to refuse to let him sit with them. He was, at that point, unofficially exiled to become "Counter Bread." In addition to this, Chad has on multiple occasions brought his gun into the restaurant and has asked most of the employees to marry, date, or just sleep with him.

The local police (all of whom are customers) eventually stopped the former behavior, and there does not seem to be a way to stop the latter. Persistent as ever, Chad still occasionally drifts from the counter to the "Coffee Drinkers" table and is allowed to stay, but his incessant antics regarding his newspaper quarter always send him back to his fellow "Counter Bread."

Like the Harley culture examined in Barbara Joans' book "Bike Lust: Harleys, Women & American Society, the "Counter Bread" do not conform to the standards set forth by American society. They break rules and live their lives without regard to what is expected of them. However, unlike the Harley culture, most of these men have not chosen the life they lead. Some are debilitated by mental illness, others are victims of the incapacitating effects of old age, and a few are men from an era of farming and lumber-jacking that gave them little need for such seemingly simple skills as reading, manners and social graces. In particular, the outlaws described in Joans' book seem the most akin to the "Counter Bread." While these men chose to live outside social norms, they too suffer rejection from most society even to the point of being refused service at an eating establishment. However, both of these subcultures seem to have found a niche that allows them to exist in a society all their own. Once a seemingly sleepy little town, it has now been exposed as an interesting (if not entertaining) source of ethnographic study with subcultures that you might have to see to believe.