By SHERRI L. SHAULIS

By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CENTER OF THE WORLD -- People come here for various reasons.
Some are just passing through once they exit the Ohio Turnpike. Others live in the tiny community situated on state Routes 82 and 5 in Braceville Township.
A few, like Kathy Waggoner and Giorgio Femia, work at the Kountry Kupboard restaurant with people they consider family.
"You get a pretty even mix of locals and truck drivers in here," said Waggoner, who has worked at the family-style eatery for 14 years. "But the real key is you never want to lose one customer."
That seems to be her mantra, as she makes her way from booth to booth, delivering food and drinks, wiping up messes, making fresh pots of coffee.
Whether she knows the person whose order she takes or not, they all get the same big smile and friendly attitude.
"My husband teases me when I tell him I'm going to visit with my other family," Waggoner said.
Close relationships
She can't help but smile as she talks about her co-workers and regular customers. She talks about how she worries about each one of them, especially some of the senior citizens she has served since the day she started.
"There's one older man who's very stubborn," she explains. "He wouldn't go to the doctor and kept telling me he didn't need a hospital -- if he was going to die, then he was going to die.
"But I kept telling him that maybe he was ready for that, but I wasn't," she continued. "We finally got someone to take him to the hospital, and he's doing better now."
Some of the regulars come in around the same time each day, Waggoner said, and if they miss a day or two, she worries.
"Especially the ones who live by themselves; you really hope they are OK," she said.
As their regular waitress, Waggoner has also become a friend, confidante and counselor for many of the customers. They share their pictures and happy news with her and other waitresses at the restaurant, and she loves that trust and closeness.
Her lifelong work
It's the only work Waggoner knows, since she started her first waitressing job at the Howard Johnson's on the turnpike when she was just 16.
"I just really don't like change," she said, explaining that she worked at the HoJo for seven years before working at two other restaurants for a few years before coming to the Kountry Kupboard.
She comments how people have told her she should have found work as a nurse or teacher, careers in which her people skills and gentle nature would have worked to her advantage.
"I don't think I could have been a nurse, because I like people and wouldn't want to have to hurt them," she says. "I just couldn't handle that."
Came from Italy
Femia, one of the owners and cooks at Kountry Kupboard, found his way to the Center of the World another way. A native of Calabria in southern Italy, he came to America about five years ago to visit cousins in the area.
"I met my wife, Antonette, here," the 28-year-old explains. "I wanted her to move back to Italy with me, but she wanted to stay here, so here I am."
His existence here is quite different from what it was in Italy, he says.
There, he was a student who worked odd jobs here and there. Once in America, he found work as a cook at Vernon's Cafe on U.S. Route 422 in Niles, where he stayed for four years.
He and some friends decided they wanted to get into the restaurant business for themselves, so they looked around for a good place.
"We found this place, and it was for sale," Femia said. "It was a good opportunity."
With a slight Italian accent, he talks about how he has spent the past year working on creating a home-cooked menu for the restaurant, featuring foods he never heard of until coming to the United States.
"I've had things like beer-battered fish before, but we bought it already prepared," he said. "Here, we make it from scratch; we make the batter, get fresh fish, everything."
Kind of funny
He admits he still finds humor in the fact that he left Italy and ended up in Center of the World. The landscape and climate are nothing like he grew up with, and he can't imagine why the tiny town bears such an impressive name.
Even his siblings -- seven brothers and a sister, who all still live in Italy -- find it amusing.
"They come to visit, and they look around and say, 'Center of the World? I don't think so,'" he says, laughing.
slshaulis@vindy.com