Mom’s Cafe

Yesterday rainy morning, on my way to SunRay Kelley’s and Bonnie’s compound near Sedro Woolley, Washington, I’m hungry, and here is Mom’s cafe. Who can resist? (I’m a sucker for any cafe that says “Mom’s,” or “Home Cooking.”)

Great breakfast of scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, homemade corn muffin. I ask the cook, “Are you Mom?” “Yes,” she says, “but little mama runs this place,” motioning toward the young waitress. “Your daughter?” “Yes. I just do what she says.” Smiles all around.

Mom is Linda Hanger, daughter is Jess, and she’s lovely. Doesn’t know it either. Radiant smile, kindness in face, sparkling eyes. There’s substance here too, and humor. She’s 22 and lives, it turns out, in a tiny home on 22 acres in the hills and practices permaculture. There’s something about the 20-year-olds these days. Children of the boomers. A whole new breed. Hope in this battered world.

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

2 Responses to Mom’s Cafe

  1. Lloyd, that is such a beautifully written short, short story you have written above. Says so much in just a few words. Thanks for posting.

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