Photo on ColumbiaMagazine.com

2011-10-19 - 712 Russell Road - Photo by Ed Waggener.
The new Circle R has some J.D. Harper era menus framed and on the wall. They bring back many memories. Of Mr. Harper's management style. The one on the left was the printed at fairly infrequent intervals. The first few days after the new menus hit the tables - with tiny nickel, dime, quarter and no more than $1 price increases - seemed to be the hardest of Mr. Harper. There were a few pained expressions at the Holy Cash Register - the most secure repository this side of Ft. Knox - some real, but most feigned to elicit the standard Harper response. If the pained expression brought no response, we knew to timidly ask if the price were correct. Mr. Harper, the absolute, undisputed CEO, could always disown any knowledge or role in the inflation. He'd turn to the grill cook and question the price, "Vonda, is a cod fish dinner $4.95 now?," and Vonda would say, "Yes, Mr. Harper, that's what it is." He'd then turn to the customer, shake his head sympathetically and tell him or her, "Yes, that's what Vonda says it is." How could the coldest cynic think that Mr. Harper had anything whatsoever to do with prices going up at the Circle R? It was such great theatre that the performance made the price hike much more palatable; especially if one had been put up to posing the question by one of Mr. Harper's "sons," Dan Waggener or Larry Legg, who took bows through the huge plate glass windows as the instigators looked up from their coffee and acknowledged another stellar performance. THE OTHER MENU, on the right, was one of the ones Peggy Brockman typed on a manual typewriter through five carbons, each day. It had the Circle R's "Meat and Two," selections, and these were pinned to the inside of the printed menu. There was a separate, much smaller breakfast menu. The printed ones were retired only when the lamination separated into most bubbles or the between printings price change stickers looked as ragged as a drunk's face after shaving wounds have been stanched with globs of tissue paper; but by new menu time, we regular customers were a little anxious to participate in the price hike ritual once more, being careful not to overdo it. Banishment from the Circle R was fairly rare, but it happened, and it was a far harsher punishment than any scarlet letter, unfriending, lodge blackballing, churching, or shunning could ever be. -ED WAGGENER