pecan waffle
image; Waffle House twitter

I don’t have much experience to talk about what happens in a Waffle House at 2 AM in the morning in downtown area. Not about that lifestyle.

A friend and I sat in one of the side booths. There were about 10 patrons, including us 2.

The food arrived fairly quickly.  While I chowed down on the food a conversation was brewing in the middle area of the restaurant.  My back was back to them, I didn’t care what they talked about until my friend started laughing. I was late to the party, turns out they were talking about pecans.

“It’s pee-cans.” the guy said.
“I am from the straight South. From Louisiana. It’s pecans, not pee-cans.” the other guy retorted.
“I’m from New York. We pronounce it pee-cans too.” the third guy in one of the back booths said. He walked over to the first guy to give him a knowing handshake.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Things were only heating up.

“We’re in the South. If you pronounce it pee-cans, you’re not from the South” the second guy said to the first guy which seemed to irritate him. I should point out that they were increasingly getting louder at this point. Reiterating the same statements so the conversation didn’t move forward at all.

“So this is what happens at a Waffle House late at night” I told my friend.

The people in the booth next to us were smiling just as we were at how far the pecan pronunciation has escalated.

“How do you pronounce it?” my friend asked me.
“Pecan”
“Then you should go and say that too.”
“No thanks”. I really didn’t want to add more fuel to the debate which was quickly turning into a yelling contest. I also felt an upcoming brawl wasn’t out of the question. They were sitting fairly close to each other.

Shortly after, the first guy left the place because the other guy had a more convincing argument, i.e. he yelled “it’s pecan” louder. He slammed the door loudly as he walked out.

I had a good laugh with my friend. This was new to us. The entire time the cook didn’t even bother to turn around and tune in. Her body language saying, “just another late night shift at Waffle House.”

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