Mi Amigos

The other day after taking my friend to the hospital, we decided that taking a detour to a restaurant before returning to practice would be a good idea. We ended up at Amigo’s. I have never been to an Amigo’s before in my life because none are in Colorado. So sitting down on the concrete benches, I observed the people passing by in their cars and the beautiful sunset silhouetting the building across the street. The umbrella added cool shade to sit under. The building itself is not that extraordinary. I chose it because it was new to me. The walls were the tan color of any Mexican color in the tradition of the early Native Americans. The sign is ugly and plain with the word Amigo printed in green and a sombrero sitting atop it. I sat drinking my strawberry milk shake, feeling I was in a less fortunate neighborhood or Lincoln. The building resembled this, as many of the other buildings did, by looking grimy and not very well-taken care of. I felt like I was back on Colfax, instead of Cornhusker Hwy, on one of the late night Dairy Queen runs. Altogether, the building and its surroundings were not that impressive.

Seeing buildings and surroundings like this always make me wonder what it looked like when it was first built. Now we have new shopping centers that look so nice and better, but these buildings and the Amigo’s have seen a much better day. I wonder about how the people thought of the buildings looked when they were first built, if they installed the kind of awe of newness that the shopping malls of O street do today. Otherwise, the street and people just seemed like normal people going about their business. Nothing was brand new though, not in this part of town.