The other day I got a hankering for a Wendy’s Double Cheeseburger and still don’t know why or where that hankering came from. Most of my whimsical, spur-of-the-moment food purchases like this one, I can usually trace back either to a commercial I saw recently or to a conversation in Buzzy’s Country Store wherein someone discussed getting such-and-such and how much they enjoyed it. But not this time; I just wanted one.
Regardless of my motivation, there I was in the drive-thru line of the Wendy’s located in front of Walmart. (It always seems like those two are paired up doesn’t it? McDonalds may get to be inside the Wal, but a Wendy’s is usually camped out in front of them. Check it out.)
As I went thru the three step process of waiting to order, waiting to pay and then waiting for my Doubler, the thought occurred to me “Wonder how many drive-thrus we have in the County?”
I then started to tick off in my head the number of fast food places we have because just about all of them have drive-thrus. But then it dawned on me that we also have several liquor stores that still have a drive-thru. While the County outlawed drive-thru liquor businesses several years ago, the ones that had a drive-thru at the time the ban went into effect were grandfathered in. Thus, there are still half a dozen drive-thru liquor stores in the County.
Next on my quick inventory, I thought of all the drug stores in the County that now offer drive-thru services. But then that led me to consider other drive-thru operations such as banks, grocery stores, coffee shops, donut places, cleaners, laundermats, medical testing etc.. Hell, even the lame ass Postal folks offer drive-thru mailboxes. Drive-thru services are everywhere.
As I secured my Doubler and proceeded to head to Ridge, I concluded “Maybe I won’t try to calculate how many drive-thrus there are in the County.”
Ironically, all of this crossed my mind just last night as I attended visitation services at a funeral home. With the line to get into the funeral home stretching out the door and way into the parking lot, it made me think “Why don’t funeral homes do drive-thru visitations using the fast food model?” First stop you would sign the book, second stop you pick up the holy card/life summary documents, third stop you greet the family and then be on your way and drive off. (OK, so step 3 would need some organizing but it could be figured out.) And if you think this is a dumb and/or farfetched idea that I just made up (click here.)
Any mention of drive-thrus, always makes me think Beavis and Butthead “working” at one as follows:
Recognizing that I try to keep the Buzzyblog apolitical, I couldn’t resist the following because it is so timely:
Speaking of Burning Down the “House,” Talking Heads were recently on CBS Sunday Morning discussing their careers and what they are up to now (click here.)