Food for Thought

Now that there's a fast food place or restaurant on almost every corner, my two youngest kids find it funny that I can remember things like my first piece of pizza (I was 12), my first taco (I was 19), and my first Chinese food (early 20s). They find it remarkable that, except for school, we ate 98% of our meals at home. So they wanted to know what I did remember eating.

I remember Loudon hot dogs. I grew up thinking hot dogs automatically came with slaw and chili on them. Even now, on most of the trips home, I'll stop by Carl's Drive In and get a hot dog. I remember getting them from Grace's Cafe down near the chair factory (that cafe is a laundromat now I think), from a little diner under the bridge the two summers I worked on the city crew, and now at Carl's. When I was 19 and stationed in California we went to a fast food place called Der Wienerschnitzel that specialized in hot dogs. When I order one I asked the lady where the slaw and chili was and she said "We don't have slaw and you didn't order chili." Heck, I didn't know I had to. But I'm keeping the tradition going. When we fix hot dogs at home there's always slaw and chili handy, and 3 of my kids eat them that way all the time too. :)

I remember Brown Cow's. Every city I've ever lived in has had a vanilla ice cream bar that was dipped in chocolate and then put on a stick, but they don't taste as good as a Brown Cow did when I was a kid. Also, when I think of the creamery I remember a guy (can't recall his name) who drove a delivery truck for them, who would sometimes give us kids a small cup of ice cream as a "free sample". I'm convinced now that there were no free samples. He most likely opened a box out of the kindness of his heart to give to kids when it was hot. And the last thing I remember about the creamery was when I was 12 or 13 or so, on Saturday mornings a group of us guys would gather at the creamery and they'd take us to sell ice cream at the UT football games.

I remember stopping by the A&W after class and getting a frosty mug of root beer with the mug so cold that frost gathered on the outside. The root beer was so sweet and creamy. I also remember cruising there late on Friday or Saturday night to see who all was there.

I remember the soda fountain at Richeson's Drug Store where you could get up to four scoops on a cone, or a sundae, or a cherry coke, or whatever, and the jukebox that had a decent selection. My favorite was When a Man Loves a Woman by Percy Sledge. Why, oh why, did Michael Bolton have to screw that up?

When I was younger, I remember getting the small 8 ounce cokes at the skating rink that used to be under the big tent down by the baseball field. We used to go there to listen to music and hang out more than we skated.

I remember in high school going to a Burger Queen in south Knoxville, and if I remember right they had a half pound burger.

I also remember the beer joint down near Philadelphia where you could pull up to the back door and get a quart or a six pack with no questions asked if you had the money, but I don't tell my kids too much about that. :)