86

Recently, very early one morning, I was traveling through the Tampa airport and stopped at a restaurant for a meal. The plate I wanted came with potatoes which I didn't want. Being groggy, I slipped back many years and told the waitress to "86 the potatoes". She looked at me with some amazement and said "how'd you know that term?". Her question woke me up and I told her I had been a waitress while in college. Her response was "Cool!". And she was very nice and attentive the rest of the time I was there.

It got me to reminiscing about my younger years. I refuse to say the good ole days ... but man ... what a time that was!!! Hanging out for HOURS at the Broadway Drug store drinking coffee and studying and waxing philosophic, solving the problems of the world and debating what it all meant; living on beans and rice, loving waiting tables because I got to eat something besides beans and rice. And the house (duplex actually) on 14th Street. Ah man, it was an ancient house, had an old small stable in the back with a dead and rusting Studebaker and we'd find chunks of coal in the storm cellar under the house where they used to store the coal used to heat it before gas was available. And adopting any cats that came around ... feeding them on a platform made from an Earth, TX city limits sign that someone swiped, the sign suspended on a tree so they could eat without the neighbor's dogs bothering them. We'd ring Mimi's bells and the cats would come running. And ... , I digress...

Anyway, it also caused me to ponder where the term "86" originated. So I googled it and here is the answer from the Urban Dictionary - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=86 the definition and how the term came into being.