When we are children and don’t know
any better, we believe that McDonald’s is the greatest thing. Oh, sure, perhaps we’re too busy at the play
center or enjoying the toy that falls apart long before we have finished
whatever lame meal was ordered. What did
we know about nutrition? It wasn’t even
in our vocabulary.
Teenagers seemed divided. It’s fast, it’s cheap, close enough to the
high school or jr. high. Given the right
time of the day . . . not that I think of it as a hangout – not in your larger
cities anyway. Not with a playland and
30 screaming kids.
“It’s not where you take a girl on a
date,” says Randy. Although I could
picture Tony doing that very thing – and not with a limo and candles (which
Randy said was too cheesy – why spend the money on a limo? Why not just better quality food? Have to agree with that part.
Biff likes the yogurt parfaits. That’s about it. Even at thirteen (when he was seriously a
better eater than he is now) he saw McDonald’s food as something that would
clog the arteries. And it would take
years and years to undo the damage. I
think Biff views McDonald’s as the gateway to suicide.
As adults we would prefer NOT to go to
McDonald’s. It’s fine to take the kids
when they’re younger, but as they get older?
Come on. Surely we can come up
with better food – even if McDonald’s does seem the only thing in the budget.
Children don’t seem to appreciate home cooked meals. Going out just seems so much more prestige –
even if it is McDonald’s.
I recall the first time the boys had Alfredo
sauce. Neither Biff or Tony (who
literally eats anything but chicken) seemed unimpressed, but Randy (who always
expressed his gratitude and appreciative thoughts and anything to be the center
of attention) said (and he genuinely did mean it as a compliment) "This tastes
like restaurant food”
Randy was grateful to eat something
other than the budget meals that they had before I met Roland. And he really did like it even if Biff and
Tony weren’t all that impressed.
I think it is the prices at McDonald’s
that draw in the senior citizens. I
remember dad thinking McDonald’s was pretty good. And mom, who, for so many year has said, “I
don’t want to eat at McDonald’s.” didn’t seem to mind it the other day when
Jenna announced that’s where she wanted to go.
I certainly wasn’t up for McDonald’s food, but that’s where we ended up
and “grandma” didn’t seem to mind.
I guess by definition of the AARP I
turned into a senior citizen at the end of May this year. But my love for McDonald’s (should I ever
have one) is so far into the future that I think my taste buds will have to be
further gone than I am.
On the up side: McDonald’s does
provide housing for families for children who are in hospitals closer to the
hospital than their own houses. The
paper products used by McDonald’s are supposedly all recyclable. Big Macs, for instance, used to come in a
Styrofoam carton. Styrofoam is not
recyclable. Therefore it was changed to cardboard. Though I think more ends up in the “garbage”
than in the “recycling” – how can a product all covered in fatty food possibly
be recycled?
There are a lot of pluses to McDonalds
– possibly more than down sides. They
may have a bad rap with many. But there
will always be that genuine love among the children and senior citizens.
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