Change in Duty: Cook who fixed pork-chop treat for 60 years takes on lighter role

MOUNT AIRY (Winston-Salem Journal) - The tourists and locals who lined up each day outside at Snappy Lunch could count on two things as they waited for a seat: The smell of pork-chop sandwiches wafting through the air, and Charles Dowell standing at the window by the grill, paper hat on his head, spatula in hand.

He has worked there for more than 60 years, but his cooking days are now over.

Dowell, 79, is suffering from early dementia, and his family and co-workers moved him from the grill a few months back. They say that it’s a bittersweet time for a man who spent his life making one thing - a pork-chop sandwich - better than anybody else.

He still comes in each day to clear tables and keep the ice machine filled, passing the grill where he worked since Andy Griffith was a teenager in this small town.

“After that many years, I don’t feel right not being on the grill,” he said yesterday.