Nebraska State Law

Dairy Sweet Drive-In

Weeping Water, NE

November 10, 1992

I stopped in to the Dairy Sweet after walking around for a while at Platte River State Park. The day was cold and damp – not the best for walking in the woods – but I wanted to get out in the country: the day would be wasted otherwise. Once in the woods, I felt much better than I’d felt in my house in Lincoln. I felt that this was where I belonged, and, as usual, I was drawn to a creek and a small falls – actually just a trickle coming through the ice. I thought of other falls and other creeks I’d encountered or courted in my life: the creek/river of my early childhood, the Vermilion River and Stink Creek of my 20s, the Prairie Creek near the New Melleray Abbey, the other Prairie Creek in Minnesota, etc & etc. Always and everywhere I am drawn to and feel best when near a body or stream of water in a wooded area. Here in Nebraska the water is just a trickle, but it is here.

The Dairy Sweet is an interesting place. There are the usual auction notices and lost & found notices in the small foyer. It’s a go-to-the-counter-and-put-in-your-order place, so I went to the counter and put in an order for a cheeseburger and fries and a cup of coffee. The person at the counter whom I first took to be a woman turned out to be a flamboyantly effeminate guy. It was kind of odd to see such a sight in Weeping Water, Nebraska, I figured.

You see, Lincoln, Nebraska, where I lived and where the University of Nebraska - Lincoln was, had a very progressive ambiance. If anything, it was more progressive than Champaign, Illinois, and just as cosmopolitan. But the Star City was one of only two real cities in Nebraska, the other being Omaha. Things were much dicier for gays, trans, etc. in the rural areas, which comprised most of the rest of the state.

There were several people sitting at the booths and tables, apparently related to, or at least very friendly with, each other. Several small kids, a grandma, and a couple of very fat women – one of them named Silvia. This Silvia had a great pouch of fat hanging below the waistband of her fat pants – sort of a giant version of those Velcro-snap waist-pouches that people have been wearing for the past year or so. So-called “fanny packs.”

Country music played on the radio. There was a small TV on a bracket in the corner, but it wasn’t turned on.

In another corner hung a sign reading Smoking Is Permitted in This Entire Establishment, which I thought was very unusual. It reminded me of the taxi in Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown,  in which the driver had a sign that read Please Smoke. I asked the counterman (Kevin) and his mother about the sign, and they explained that they were required to post it by Nebraska State Law. The Dairy Sweet is of such a size that it can’t be divided into Smoking and Nonsmoking sections – it must be all or nothing. The owners thought that putting up the sign was a strange idea and they have tried to take it down, but the ever-vigilant scout from the State of Nebraska came in and told them to put it back up. It’s the law.

Good cheeseburger here, with fresh tomato and lettuce. Well worth the stop.