Word: counterman
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...roadside diner in California one day last week, a green and white 1954 three-hole Buick sedan came to a gentle halt and an elderly couple got out. They were tourists, just passing by. The birdlike little woman chattered warmly to the counterman as she ordered weak tea. Her husband, a tall, stooped, somber man in a sports jacket, remained aloof. His heavy, bald dome wrinkled uneasily; his face drooped; his mouth was firmly shut. He folded and unfolded his big hands, cracking a knuckle occasionally and gazing, with utter absorption, at the garish, commonplace surroundings. His blue-grey eyes...
...employees at the H.A.A., Frank Knapp and Fred Moore, bought the business. These two gentlemen saw the shop through its transitional period. They took down the great green curtain that closed off the rear of the shop and turned Leavitt's "house Man" into a counterman. The lunch counter was moved upstairs and the freshman smoker was closed. It was they who instituted the practice of posting athletic notices in Leavitt's window...
...recall when President Lowell dropped into the shop three times a week with his cocker spaniel, and when President Conant used to send his secretary down to buy Benson and Hedges cigars. The firm has not seen nor heard from President Pusey. But this is easily explained by the counterman...
Like Breakfast with the Borgias. All sat down on stools with the air of men sinking into the electric chair. Bill tucked his pistol into his belt, hustled around behind the counter, chased the counterman and Morton Flicker, the owner's 20-year-old son, into a back room. Then Bill began dispensing hospitality. "Well, gentlemen," he cried, rubbing his hands as his astounded victims cringed, "what will it be? It's all on me. You only have to order." Nobody said a word. "Ham and eggs!" cried Bill. "In a moment, sir!" Soon he was cooking...
They had lost their jobs, had got behind in the rent, had come to fear they were "sliding to the gutter." He was a photographer; to buy whisky, he got a job as a restaurant counterman. The pair drank . . . and drank . . . and finally made a suicide pact. He remembered saying: "I'm going to strangle you." He remembered her answering, "O.K., honey, get it over with." When he awakened, he found the woman dead. He had turned on the gas-he hadn't wanted to live. Gently enough, the cops led him away...