Melissa

I had a friend in college named Melissa. She was one of those people who never seemed to have a cross word to say and was unfailingly nice to everyone – sweet was the first word that came to mind to describe her.

We waitressed together at a Mexican restaurant, and later at an Italian restaurant. She ended up marrying Dave, one of the owners of the Italian restaurant, who was kind of a hippie at the time. He liked the Grateful Dead and other 60’s/70’s bands like the Allman Brothers. There was a tape they would play at the restaurant with “Sweet Melissa” on it, so I started thinking of her whenever I heard the song.

There’s no point to this post, “Sweet Melissa” just played on Eklektikos and I thought it was funny that all these years later, I still think of her when I hear it.

Interestingly, the name Melissa originated from the word for honey, so “sweet Melissa” is sort of redundant.