My first job after graduating from the University of Oregon in 1954 was at the newly opened Bon Marche department store in Eugene, Oregon. After a few years I had become a department manager and would fly into New York every three months for seasonal buying, working with market agents in the chain's national resource center. I became friends with one of the agents (can't remember his name but let's call him Al) who told me about a department manager from Texas who had never been to the big city before and inquired about places to eat.
Al said, "I took Tex to a place where he could get a taste of some traditional New York cuisine and told him to order the bagel and lox. He did and he loved it. So much so that all the time he was here he kept going back for more." On Tex's last day he thanked Al for introducing him to bagel and lox but he had one question, Al said. "He asked me to clear something up for him. He wanted to know, which was the bagel and which was the lox?"
