Lunch With Archie Bunker?

Remember this couple?

Archie and Edith Bunker.  The character of "Archie, the bigoted working class man" was played by Carroll O'Conner, who was definitely playing the roll, because he was a liberal in real life.  This couple entertained us once a week from 1971 to 1983 and for many years to come in syndication.  I 'loved' the cranky old bigoted character Archie and felt sorry for Edith who had to live with this awful man. In many ways Archie reminded me of my own father.  But ultimately I grew up to be more like the actor who played Archie, liberal in my politics.

It's been over 30 years since that show stopped airing weekly, but Archie lives on in some people still to this day.  I know that because we had lunch with an ' Archie' one day -not by choice.  It all started one lovely Saturday just before noon...

My husband and I went to a fresh baked goods cafe to enjoy a nice lunch. We arrived shortly before noon, thinking we could beat the lunch rush, but apparently everyone else had the same idea because they were slammed.  We didn't see an open table in the place but a kind gentleman waved at me from a large table that would seat eight.  He said he had been with a big group that left a moment ago but he was still working on some paperwork so we could share the table with him.  We accepted his offer and sat down at the opposite end of the table so we wouldn't disturb his work.  Moments later an elderly couple was standing near us, looking around for a table themselves.  I passed on the offer of sitting at our table since it was plenty big enough for all of us.  They accepted my offer and sat in the two seats directly across from us.

The woman of the couple chatted with me about getting her garden started this spring, while her husband went to the counter to order.  She was pleasant and I enjoyed our brief moments of chit-chat while our husbands were up placing our orders.  I thought we might continue to have a pleasant conversation once our husbands returned, but that was not to be.

The moment her husband sat down he began complaining about the foreigners who owned the complex we were dining in. Called them Muslims, (he could tell this by their last names) and made derogatory statements about them. Said he was surprised we got such good food for this fair price.  How he connected the owners of the building, with the food quality and price set by the cafe owners leasing the space, I didn't get, but he tried to make a connection. My husband tried to make light of his comments by saying that this complex was dying out before the new owners came in and now the shops all seemed to be doing better. That went right past this man so I suppose he wasn't listening to my husband. He continued saying how the Muslims are taking over our country. My husband and I turned and gave a knowing look at each other, speaking the silent language that longtime couples use without saying a word.  We were both dissapointed that we offered to share our table with this couple.  The single man sitting at the other end of the table who shared it with us, was now gone. I assume he was either done with his work or didn't want to listen to this bigoted triad.

Eventually the man changed the subject (sort of), as he linked "those Muslims" to our president, "that black guy.' Who in his opinion was also a Muslim, and running this country into the ground. We gave each other that look again, this time saying in our silent language, "Is there another table open in this place?" We both looked around and saw that it was still standing room only.  If body language said anything, we were speaking volumes when we both turned our chairs towards each other and our heads as far away from his direction as possible. But he didn't pick up on our body language.  And our complete silence in this 'conversation'' seemed to go unnoticed as well because this man went on and on with his bigot rant thru the rest of the meal.  It wasn't a long, relaxing meal with small talk over a delicious lunch that we planned, we crammed our food down as quickly as we could so we could get the hell away from this man and his ignorant, negative rantings.  In that short 15 minutes time he covered his dislike for Muslims to the President of the United States, to black people and Africans in general, to singles mothers and even to the LGBT community.

Once we left the cafe we were glad to be free of that man, but felt sorry for his wife who had probably been with him a long time. She didn't join him in spewing hate, but she didn't give him the knowing married couple look either, the one that would have said, "Shut up, you are offending these people who might have a different view of things!" Or as Edith would have said, "Oh Archie!"


Ami Jo