I'm not sure why but today I found myself remembering Sambo's. We did not have them in Philly or Jersey that I recall but my dad often worked in upstate New York and I spent some time there as a kid and that's where I got to eat at Sambo's. I believe I was familiar then with the story of "Little Black Sambo" but I don't think I was old enough yet to understand why it might be an issue as the name of a restaurant. In my mind I thought I remembered that Sambo was African rather than Indian but of course our memories are thoroughly unreliable as documentary devices. As Roger Clemens would say, I misremembered. I did however correctly recall the tigers and pancakes part of the motif. Things were different in the 70's.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Sambo's
I'm not sure why but today I found myself remembering Sambo's. We did not have them in Philly or Jersey that I recall but my dad often worked in upstate New York and I spent some time there as a kid and that's where I got to eat at Sambo's. I believe I was familiar then with the story of "Little Black Sambo" but I don't think I was old enough yet to understand why it might be an issue as the name of a restaurant. In my mind I thought I remembered that Sambo was African rather than Indian but of course our memories are thoroughly unreliable as documentary devices. As Roger Clemens would say, I misremembered. I did however correctly recall the tigers and pancakes part of the motif. Things were different in the 70's.
