
Sometimes all it takes is an old photograph and an active imagination. Take this photo, for example: I discovered it while looking through file cabinets at the Division of State History (and thanks to the Utah Historical Society for use of the photo.) A tag on the back identified it as the Beehive Café, and the padded door as the entry to someplace called the Twilight Lounge. It seemed so familiar, like any one of a dozen cafes I remembered being in as a kid, but the Lounge addition was a mystery. I've since learned that the "Twilite Lounge" still exists in Salt Lake, though at a new location. This place died under the wrecking ball when the Whitehall Hotel above it was demolished. For me, it became a star in two novels, along with a fictional café owner named George. My imagination populated it with characters and the types of people I remembered growing up with around here. So, if my rendering is less than perfect, I hope you'll forgive me and simply enjoy old Salt Lake the way my imagination has re-created it.
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