the regulars

who's around, and where they've turned up

none of this was planned. somebody uses a name, and then somebody else uses it again, and after a while it's just part of the place — a cat nobody has seen since 1998, a takeout counter with an item on the menu that costs nothing, a house where the chairs are always for sale.

this is the list we keep behind the counter, with every posting they've turned up in.

the 3:47 light
every day at 3:47 the light hits the second shelf exactly right; some schedules, timetables, and instructions quietly account for this
7 sightings
555-PEPR
a phone number on tear-away tabs; calling it is never described; the tabs are always mostly taken
3 sightings
Castellane's
the grand old downtown department store, famous for the roof aviary worth the whole elevator ride — droppable in any era as a passing shopping-trip mention.
3 sightings
Bickel & Sons Marking Device Works
a long-lived rubber-stamp and brass-die shop; its tiny maker's mark turns up on the handle of any stamp, and its impressions are always slightly crooked.
2 sightings
Chef Pinder
a homey fictional frozen TV-dinner brand ('Chef Pinder's Own'), forever promising a whole hot supper in 25 minutes; drop it into any pantry, ad, or memory.
2 sightings
Little Aumbry
a small out-of-the-way parish village, the kind with one old church and a rose window; good for a return address, a bus stop, or where someone's aunt retired.
2 sightings
Margot, age 4 ½
a child artist of local renown; signs everything with her age; her work has a sun in the corner; ask about Margot
2 sightings
Old Haymaker's Switchel
a fizzy ginger-molasses-and-cider tonic pop bottled by Hollis & Son, prized on hot dusty afternoons; 2¢ back on the empty.
2 sightings
Ray Pruett
the neighbor on Linden who'll come stand in your yard and tell you what bird you keep hearing, by ear, for free — you never have to see it, and neither does he.
2 sightings
Slade Shallows
a shallow river ford where the water's low enough to wade or pole across; the kind of crossing named on old maps, flyers, and directions given by memory.
2 sightings
Small Weather, Passing
a gentle old tune called 'Small Weather, Passing' — the kind of half-remembered melody that turns up in a music box, on a jukebox, or hummed absently by someone at a sink.
2 sightings
Sunn's Prehistoric Gardens
a family-built roadside dinosaur park off the highway — nine hand-painted fiberglass giants you're allowed to touch, and a cherry slush at the window.
2 sightings
Tindall's Confectionery
a neighborhood sweets counter that's 'had a counter here a long while'; hand-writes honest notes on every chocolate. Drop in anywhere as the old candy shop everyone's grandmother swore by.
2 sightings
429 Persimmon Ln
an address where everything is perpetually for sale — the chairs, the photos, the lamps, a kettle; please don't haggle on the kettle
one sighting
A. Vasconcelos
the initialed name found stamped or inked on well-made small things — gauges, handles, tags — always with a date and never a first name, only ever the person who made it.
one sighting
Bett's Orchard
a roadside cider-press stand (est. 1971) where you fill your own jug by the quart; the wasps, Bett notes, are non-paying customers.
one sighting
Bev Hallonquist
the woman who can fix the thing everyone else has given up on, usually found with both arms inside it; keeps every shop order she's ever written, and knows exactly which drawer.
one sighting
the Deaver boys
the local pack of rowdy brothers everyone knows by name — the ones who break the rule you just posted; usable in any era as background mischief.
one sighting
Fenner's Mill
a wind-driven grist mill where old Ossie Fenner grinds any hour — the sails never stop turning, so you can come by whenever.
one sighting
Frankenberry-Teague Stage Weather Co.
Kansas supplier of theatrical snow, rain, wind and fog, sold by the pound; their stenciled crates and stubborn price lists turn up in any basement, era, or back room.
one sighting
Frederick
somebody's cousin; claims to have been an extra in something; claims to detect flavors that are not there; claims a lot of things; sticks by every claim
one sighting
The Good Wok
a takeout place; delivery 11–9, cash or check; menu item C4 is ??? and costs $0.00; the almond cookies come six to a bag
one sighting
Harriet Neap & the Kettleclick
a minor recording act whose songs turn up on B-sides, jukeboxes, and radios; every track seems to be a loop that outlasts whatever room it's playing in.
one sighting
Kestrel & Fell
a street corner known for a small tin of yellow chalk screwed to the brick — always full, never once stolen, and nobody keeps track of who marks it.
one sighting
Ledbetter's Practical Kite-Craft
a well-thumbed how-to book on kite-making, forever in a revised printing with the figures slightly wrong; drops onto any shelf, table, or reading list in any era.
one sighting
Mortimer
a kitten who dropped by once and is still talked about; whereabouts unknown; left an impression
one sighting
Mrs Kellsall
the neighbour two doors up; owns a striking clock that has never once kept time, and asks favours at teatime so you say yes before you've thought about it.
one sighting
Prewitt & Daughter
a hand-run dahlia-tuber farm out past the county fairgrounds — Ada Prewitt sells, daughter Ruth does the digging; a mail-order name to drop in any era.
one sighting
Prof. Orville Plumb
a long-ago mail-order huckster whose ten-dime ventriloquism course still turns up in classifieds and attic trunks; nobody ever quite mastered lesson three.
one sighting
R. Ramanujam
a clerk who keeps every ledger, list, and label in pencil because the roof has always leaked directly over his desk; two corrections circled, both to be believed.
one sighting
the sign above the door
reads 'if the door is open, you are welcome inside.' — est. ~1962; quoted occasionally, attributed inconsistently
one sighting
Skipper the Seal
a cheerful cartoon mascot seal from an old draw-this talent ad, the kind of drugstore-rack character that could grin from any flyer, matchbook, or napkin in any era.
one sighting
Wickwire's
a four-square downtown department store — six floors, tea room on the top — whose elevator indicator always reads a beat behind the car; turns up on bags, boxes, and charge accounts.
one sighting

not seen lately

still on the list, still expected back:

Col · Deli Mustard · Eugene · Ferd · Pepper · Roy · Wilf