Donut Holes

There's a donut shop in Thorold.

It opened in '78 when a couple, new in town, purchased a boarded up soda-shop, installed an espresso maker, planted a garden outback, and hung some art.

They were hippie types. The kind of young lovers you'd expect to be eco-friendly, fair trade yuppies of the modern era. They drove down from Nevada in search of a cooler climate. In search of some personal freedom. They didn't have a structured plan, but a longing for something completely new. They weren't looking for reinvention, they were looking for a change of pace. "Whatever will be, will be" was just a long drive North.

So they left... Neil Young playing on the 8-track, as mile by mile, the couple sang along to pass the time. This wasn't about Vietnam, or their love-hate conflict for their birth country. They had a reverence for America, they did. But after having strange amounts of sex without ever getting pregnant... without ever using prophylactics ("skin on skin baby"), the couple realized their inability to conceive together - and what better celebration of their love then to bring a child into this world? This new America? And since this celebration could never be, the couple couldn't bear to be surrounded by the walls and the woods, the roads, the rivers and the bathroom stalls which they screwed in. Let's blame it on money hungry, industrial, fuel mongering polluted to shit white America. So they packed it all up for some new air. For some new Canadian life giving air.

And then came Molly Sees. Their diner.

Molly Sees (est. 1978 as it says under the antique sign) has become a local fixture among the Canadian townfolk. Thorold's very own Cheers, where everybody knows your name. She takes the orders, he cooks the food. They manage the menu together.

The couple never did end up giving birth. You can hear it in the man's acoustic lullabies played on Thursday Open Mics, and read it in the woman's quiet poetry splashed about her art. They are sad about their empty nest, but passionate that they themselves are living and breathing, that they themselves have each other. And they have their Molly Sees and all of the smiling, laughing children that come in each day with their gleeful Canadian families. In some way, they have given birth.

In true hippie tradition their diner, progressively so, was first to offer a light menu of alfalfa sprouts, whole grains, flax and vinaigrettes - nearly two decades before the mainstream did it - before McD's slated their vacuum packed alternatives for the 4000 calorie deal they normally boasted. And yet, where the irony lies in this tale, is that it is the hippie couple's reluctance to remove the "donut" from their menu, that has turned many Presbyterians in the town against them. The donut - which is culturally iconic of the religious overweight American - represented the devil to this small group of Thoroldians. They attended city council weekly to promote a "get fit - get healthy" citywide movement. It was after-all the 00's and fit lifestyle changes were the new black. The uprising happened after some special on Oprah about a 300 lb woman who wanted to sue Krispy Kreme for making her a monster. These protesting townspeople feared the same was happening to them. It’s funny how they targeted Molly Sees, which was potentially the healthiest menu in town. But the fact that, along with its sprouts, it continued to offer traditional diner specials - re: the donut, the donut hole (“timbits”, “munchkins”, “dew drops”, “country bits”) outraged the newly health obsessed townsfolk, and flagged Molly Sees a red zone. And it was all offered by American hippies, no less.

But the couple continued to resist. And the townspeople who expected the hippie-dippie granola crunchers to be all for the ban, were utterly confused as they were about most things that didn’t support or represent cliche.

See the couple themselves were not donut lovers... but they weren’t donut haters either. Removing the donut (BANNING the donut) represented a mentality they did not believe in... a mentality they did not “endorse”. They were inclusive human beings. The townspeople harassed them - calling them rebels. The couple had always been self-acclaimed peacekeepers; but in moments such as these, they were not rebels, but revolutionaries.

The donut was not the enemy; the couple truly believed this. The “individual” and their lack of control was the enemy. Half of those donut-hating wheelers, continued to pop in Molly Sees for an afternoon eclair, an old fashioned glaze, a tiger tail or evening cruller. So what defines a hypocrite anyways?

And so the couple continued to resist the pressures and the threats of being foreclosed had they not comply. They resisted to remove the donut and all donut-like products because they believed in balance. They believed that when something bad arises or something bad happens you do not run away from it, avoid it or ban it. You do not forget it or shun it and pretend it doesn’t exist. You do not remove the scar, or botox the wrinkle. Instead you turn and you look at it. You look at yourself and see if their is a personal change that can be made. And continue to live on - aware of the bad, embracing the good.

When the couple could not conceive a child they did not allow it to cause a rift in their relationship; they did not resent each other and part ways. They did not stop trying. They simply changed their way of life to allow themselves to heal. And even though there is no pain-alleviating cure...there is always love-making, there is always art, the outdoors, there is always vino and there is always marijuana

Eventually, after 16 weeks of donut drama, the “Molly Sees Donut Ban Proposition” was thrown out. The townsfolk were tired, and they were tried. They were also very... very hungry.

At this, the couple and their Molly Sees finally regained some peace and peace of mind. There are moments though... inevitable moments... where the man and the woman think to themselves whether they really did make a change, or whether they too were running away.

Stories in 15.

xoLo

Fact: Canadians consume the most doughnuts in the world, and Canada also has the most doughnut stores per capita.