Owner of Florence cafe serves large crowd on Christmas Day
Last year Linda Britton, owner of the Chuckwagon Café in Florence, served a free Christmas dinner to about 20 folks in Florence and the surrounding area who found themselves alone on Christmas Day. Everyone who attended seemed to have such a good time and appreciated it so much that Britton decided to do it again this holiday season.
This year she decided to run an ad in the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin just to make sure everyone knew she was serving the traditional Christmas dinner once again. She didn't want anyone to stay home alone at such a time if she could help it.
Apparently not many did.
Britton served dinner to about 60 people Christmas Day. "We had people from Florence, Marion, Youngtown, Cedar Point, Peabody, Burns, and Clements," she said. "It was quite a crowd! People came from communities in roughly a 10-mile radius around Florence."
Britton said she served ham, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, oyster dressing and giblet dressing, pie, cake, tea, and coffee to the many who came through the doors of her restaurant. Again this year, Britton didn't charge anything for the meal; it was her gift to anyone who wanted to accept it.
"They seemed to have a good time," she noted. "And they really seemed to appreciate it. People kind of lingered; they were relaxed and enjoyed themselves. There were lots of laughs and lots of visiting. They all said they enjoyed it and I hope they really did."
She prepared the meal, served it, and cleaned up with the help of Mike Waner and Eileen Hollowell. When asked if she planned to make it a yearly tradition, Britton answered, "Well, I'll wait and see. I guess it depends on whether I am still here and the café is still open. Who knows what might happen in a year's time? But, yeah, if I'm still in this business next year, why not? It was fun. It was a good day."
