There is a type of hamburger and fries/onion rings that is most often
found along America’s secondary highways at independent drive-ins. I want some. I know the reliability and quality
control aren’t as good, but I don’t care.
I want them. I don’t digest milk
products very well anymore, but I think you have to have a frappe with that.
Maybe I can get away with a small one.
Cheeseburger in Paradise is also good, but not quite what I am looking for at present.
"but I think you have to have a frappe with that."
ReplyDeleteWe moved from the Boston area to Anaheim, CA in 1957. It took me a while to catch on to why everybody laughed when I ordered a "mocha malted frappe".
I look for places with window service only; gravel parking lots a plus. Eating inside means business cards on the wall and stacked by the register. A cup rack for the locals who come by and drink coffee is a plus. Dirty pickup trucks outside always a good sign. A grill is good, the dirtier the better. Local high-school football decorations also a strong plus. Heinz ketchup on the tables, of course. Ordering is from a signboard in front of the kitchen. Adults in the kitchen instead of teenagers.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to add more.
@ Roy Lofquist - it's because they are jerks. Always have been.
ReplyDeleteIn the south I'm afraid we tended to refer to them as greasy spoons but that was in the last millenium so things may have changed. OTOH, the rural south was a pretty unchanging place back when I lived there. Still prefer In&Out burgers to just about any other burger but there are still a few holes in the wall that do one very well indeed.
ReplyDeleteRoy Lofquist
ReplyDeleteWe moved from the Boston area to Anaheim, CA in 1957. It took me a while to catch on to why everybody laughed when I ordered a "mocha malted frappe".
AVI
@ Roy Lofquist - it's because they are jerks. Always have been.
Regional parochialism has always been around. I am reminded of an example of New England parochialism from my high school days. The Folk Club gave a concert during an assembly. Folk songs were big among the "enlightened" then. Of course, I considered myself "enlightened." One performer got laughed at for singing a cowboy song. His guitar work and singing were OK, so it was his choice of music that got laughed at. Perhaps it was in part his wearing a
western shirt. Leadbelly or Pete Seeger were esteemed. Singing cowboys, not so much. (No, I did not laugh.)
One time on a visit to my hometown I dropped in on a classmate of my sister. She and her husband had transformed her parents' acreage into a revenue maker- petting zoo etc. They had also built an open air dance hall- obviously only for summertime use- which was modeled on a Texas honky-tonk. The conclusion is that C&W music had a long-standing popularity among working class New Englanders. One reason that the cowboy singer got laughed at in the high school assembly was that the middle class and upper middle students of the school considered his liking of C&W music to be déclassé.
So, this was both regional and class parochialism.