Burger Queens

One of my favorite memories from when I was little involves fast food. When I was in elementary school, my mom still worked for an engineering business.  After working 8-5 all day, my mother often didn’t want to make dinner when she got home.  Usually, she would somehow whip up a delicious meal, but the days my sisters and I couldn’t wait for was when we were allowed to get Burger King for dinner.

My dad often travels a lot for work, so when he does, it usually means that my mom and sisters and I go out to dinner.  Whenever we were little, when my dad was out of town, that meant we were getting Burger King that night.  My taste buds have matured very much since I was little, but I would always order the same thing each time – a plain hamburger with a large fry with sweet and sour sauce on the side. Eventually, I matured to a crispy chicken sandwich and onion rings.

The whole car ride home, my sisters and I would sneak fries out of the brown paper bag.  The eight-minute drive from Burger King to my house seemed like an eternity. My sisters and I could not wait to dig in. In fact, even though we all got a large fry (which we would never do now that we are all figure-obsessed) we would try to be the first one to yell “FIRST PICK ON FRIES.” Whoever yelled this first had the extreme privilege of picking large fry that contained the most fries. To this day, we laugh about how ridiculous that is.

I’m not really sure why we used to get so excited about Burger King. Sure, the food tastes good, and we’d always get some sort of prize in our kids meals, but I think it was just more of the experience of going. We would get all worked up because it was “Burger King Night” and think about it the entire day. One time, a Burger King employee even asked my mom out on a date when were in the drive-through! My sisters and I could not stop squealing and immediately called my dad and told him once we got home.

I think that everyone has some sort of fun memory when it comes to fast food, which is why it makes it such a part of our nation. People can say that Americans eat too much fast food, but when fun memories accompany the fast food, who can blame them?