Ode to McDonald’s

E v e r y time I see those Golden Arches on the horizon, I’m swept down memory lane, back to a happy time so long ago.

When I was a child in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Mom was the bookkeeper for the family business, AAA Trailer Hitch and UHaul, in Macon. During the summer months, I often rode shotgun with Mom to Macon so she could prepare the weekly bank deposit — a task that took her about an hour or two. Mom worked at a big desk in the front office as the guys installed trailer hitches in the back and I visited with Uncle Edwin or watched Bob Barker and “The Price is Right” on a small television in the lobby.

When Mom was done with work, we drove down Rocky Creek Road to one of the very first McDonald’s in the central part of Georgia. We both loved the Filet-O-Fish sandwich with a side of greasy, skinny French fries and an ice cold Dr. Pepper. Sometimes, we’d both order a Fried Apple Pie, which back then was a delicacy of molten apple-cinnamon filling contained in a crispy golden brown shell and served in a cardboard carton. Those pies burned my tongue and the roof of my mouth so many times!

During that same era, Mom always swung by the McDonald’s in Warner Robins after my siblings and I had dentist or orthodontist appointments. On those trips, we almost always ordered a shake — vanilla or strawberry — and sipped it all the way back to school. Little did we know back then that we were living the good life!

My siblings and I often sang along to the television during a Mc-Donald’s commercial: two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun! Big Macs were a little too much food for me to consume, yet I loved singing the jingle.

In college in Atlanta, I fell in love with McDonald’s Egg McMuffins— an egg sandwich, of sorts, formed with an egg cooked in a perfect circle, dressed with a slice of cheese and Canadian bacon, served on a toasted and buttered English muffin. Yum!

I graduated and got married. Years later, my husband and I were called upon to help his aging parents who lived in Chattanooga. We often spentthedayattheirhome— cooking, cleaning, running errands—and almost every time we started out of town, my husband would look at me and say, “You look like you don’t feel good. I think you need more to eat.” He’d navigate to a nearby McDonald’s, pull into the drive-thru and I’d order my go-to snack — large fries and a medium Dr. Pepper.

So I’ve always loved McDonald’s food, even though I’m somewhat of a healthy food eater here at home — fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains and nothing fried in oil. I know that eating McDonald’s food isn’t the best thing for my body, but I eat it anyway. I think the appeal of the long-lasting fast food chain for me is mostly a nostalgic one — rooted in fond childhood memories and routine. It has always been there for me.

And although the food and atmosphere have changed a bit, Mc-Donald’s is very similar to what I remember from when I was much, much younger. It has both changed with the times, while staying the same. Indeed, I even have a McDon- continued from page

ald’s app on my phone now that saves me a little money, and don’t get me started on the fancy ordering kiosks at the front of the counters now. Ha!

These days when I’m in the Vidalia and Lyons area visiting my mother, and she and I are driving all over town running errands, we often pull into the drive-thru of McDonald’s and order the same thing — a large order of hot fries with plenty of grains of salt clinging to them and an ice cold Dr. Pepper. And like me, Mom still enjoys a Filet-O-Fish sandwich here and there with melted cheese and tartar sauce squishing out the sides. I guess for us, McDonald’s will always be one of our happy places — satisfying both our cravings and our comfort with its familiarity.