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         Once before Molly and I had stopped by Yana’s Ye Olde Drugstore cafe on Front Street in the little arty town of Swansboro, which sits along the Intracoastal Waterway, just off one of North Carolina’s barrier islands.  But on that first trip, we were too rushed to hang out for a while.

          And Yana’s surely was a place to hang out for a while.

          For one thing, I doubt that speed reader Evelyn Wood could take in all the fifties’ posters and advertising in one sitting.

          For another, I was eager to check out the women’s restroom.

          Shocked? 

          I’ll admit I’m a little weirder than Molly, but checking out women’s restrooms …?

          On that first trip to Swansboro, Molly and I parked directly in front of Yana’s door.  While I went inside to take an open seat at the counter, Molly moved into the driver’s seat, where she could visit, and did, with the long line of people waiting outside to get a table. Molly loved people.

          Once inside the café, I walked to the rear, checked the closed door of the men’s restroom, and opened it. 

          Wham!

          There she was. 

          Though I wasn’t alert, what I initially saw was a partially-clad woman standing precisely where I wanted to go -- not just any woman, but a life-size Marilyn Monroe, looking directly at me.

          Okay, it was a cardboard cutout.  But it was full-size, and, as I said, I was less than fully awake at the time.  Anyway, it looked real enough that, for a fleeting moment, I thought I had entered the wrong restroom.  

          After I recovered, I assumed the previous visitor to the restroom -- a jokester, surely -- had re-positioned Marilyn to startle the next person who opened the door.

          It did.

          I quickly shut the door, and returned to my seat at the counter.  Any urgency to use the facilities had disappeared.

          I appreciated the joke, but, as it turned out, there was no ordinary jokester.  It was the proprietor, Evelyn, aka Yana Mama.  The men’s restroom was an extension of Yana Mama’s next door fifties memorabilia store, where she sold relics, mementos, souvenirs from a bygone era that glorified, not only Marilyn, but James Dean, the Lone Ranger, and Betty Boop.

          The men’s restroom exhibited not only Marilyn’s standup poster, but also several dozen other pictures and reminders of her glory days in the movies, including the famous one where Marilyn straddles a breezy grate in the movie “Seven Year Itch.”

          Now perhaps you’ll understand why I wanted to return to see who adorned the women’s restroom, to see which erstwhile male celebrity Yana Mama had chosen to greet the women.

          Clark Gable?  No.

          It was Elvis.

          “Don’t be cruel, to a heart that’s true.”

          Like Marilyn’s presence in the men’s room, Elvis’s pictures plastered the walls of the women’s room.  And more.  As soon as a woman opened the door, Elvis, from a hidden sound system, began talking to her, and continued talking until she left, ending with “Thank you, thank you very much.”

          I, for one, had never been in a restroom like either one. And doubt that I will again.

          Outside, Molly was still in the driver’s seat, still sticking her head toward the people waiting in line, still waiting to be petted.

          We both had fun.