August 7, 2013

  • A&W Root Beer…..back in the day

     

         When I was very young, Mom always fixed certain things for each day of the week, ending with roast chicken on Sundays. Now, Thursdays was meatloaf night. Mom could work a pound of ground beef into four pounds of loaf by adding loads of onions, oatmeal for filler, a variety of left over meats from previous nights and finally an entire can of stewed tomatoes. It was usually on Thursday mornings, as Dad was walking out the door on his way to work, that he would announce that Mom had worked hard that week and needed a break. So, he would be taking all of us out to eat when he got home that evening. Mom enjoyed the break and me and my little brother would thank Dad repeatedly under our breath. Now understand, I relied on being well fed, but trying to hide Mom’s meatloaf under the mash potatoes never worked and the dog knew when it was meatloaf night cause he stayed in the garage.

         That evening, Dad would load the family up in the Pontiac and head to the A&W, the Valhalla of burgerdom and the purveyors of that wondrous elixir known as root beer. He would pull into the A&W on Steward Street and carefully slid his automobile into the first available spot. All the smells, bright lights and rock and roll music was like an epiphany to my little brain and tended to cause me to get euphoric, which I guess was like getting high back then for a 11 year. Then I saw her! The car hop heading down our way. My heart would thump like a puppy dog as the bleached blond goddess on roller skates rolled up to our window. Dad was always in charge of ordering for us and it usually meant a burger and small fry each for me and lil bro, a fish sandwich for Mom and two chili dogs and a large onion ring for him. Then, of course, four arctic frosted, solid glass mugs of their legendary root beer!

         This particular A&W was always busy on Thursday nights, as I assumed that was meatloaf night for a lot of folks. Well, for the next ten minutes, my brother and I crawled around in the back seat like a pair of starving hyena cubs as we watched tray after tray of wondrous delights roll pass our car. Finally….blondie rolled up to Dad’s side of the car, did a tight pirouette and then hooked a metal tray onto the car door window. I was agasp at her proficiency. Dad then handed out the grub and once we were all settled, he would finally pass around the crystal steins of the sassafras infused beverage. To me, there was nothing as unique or as satisfying as an A&W root beer. Understand, it would not be until years later when you could actually buy a bottle of it. Till then, here was the only source.

         Fed, refreshed, and satisfied, we finally headed home. But….sometimes, Dad would go all out and buy a glass gallon jug of root beer and take it home with us. This usually caused a state of contention between me and my brother once we got it in the fridge, but Dad would put the death grip on the screw top and it would have taken Superman or Grandma to loosen it. Anyhow, when I drive by the new A&W’s of today, it just ain’t the same. Prefab buildings serving steroid enhanced burgers, machine extruded fish squares and a facsimile of the legendary root beer, which is delivered each week and pumped into an underground storage tank. Car hops??  It’s call drive-thru.

    Anyway….I can close my eyes and still remember those wonderful Thursday nights and the joy and excitement of going to a very special place both loved and enjoyed by the entire family……as a family.

                                                                                                                                                                         Charlie

     

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