Fast Food Then, Fast Food Now

          I was like any other small child; I loved fast food, especially Mc Donald's. That was way back when there had only been 1,000,000 people served. In other words, a long time ago. Now I don’t think they can fit all the zeros on their sign anymore. Mc Donald's was the best. I started out young eating Happy Meals. Unfortunately, I outgrew them. (At least my stomach did). I remember struggling with the fact of having to order something else other than my Happy Meals. It wasn’t because they made me "happy" it was mostly because of the "free toy" that comes with it. You see I learned early on that free is good. In order to deal with the harsh reality, my mom allowed me to buy the toy separately for a short time, just to save a tantrum. Eventually I realized that Happy Meals and their toys were childish, so I moved on. Throughout my middle school years, Big Macs were a craze. I can even recall one called the "Monster Mac". It consisted of four all meat patties, three pieces of bread, lettuce, tomato, pickle and of course their famous secret sauce. So needless to say, I became a chunky little boy. Thank God I burned out on burgers. All the way through my early twenties, when I visited Mc Donald’s, I would opt for the 20 piece chicken Mc Nuggets and a bucket of fries. (Yes I said a bucket). Other than Mc Donald’s, I can only recall two other fast food joints that played a memorable part in my growing up. When I entered high school, we had what was known as "open campus" for lunch. That basically means that we were able to leave campus for the hour and eat lunch. Conveniently located within a one mile radius of school was: Taco Bell, Dominos Pizza, January’s frozen yogurt & cinnamon rolls, a taco stand, Jack in the Box and several others I can’t recollect. My top faves were Taco Bell and Dominos. Dominos featured a slice of pizza and soda for like a buck fifty and I thought it was a steal! But it was Taco Bell and their newest burrito that had me hooked. Their half pound 7-layer burrito. At that time, they were loaded with beans, rice, tomato, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, and onions. All for 99 cents, right on my budget.




          I know it may sound like I ate tons of Happy Meals growing up, but let the truth be told, it wasn’t so. My mom was a single mom and had alot of other priorities in her life. I think what I enjoyed so much about our occasional fast food outings is not the food itself, it was more what they stood for. In my little brain then and even today, it symbolized victory. Victory over what? Poverty. It meant we had the money to go through the drive-thru just like everybody else. It made me proud of my mom, it made me feel like everything was okay. However, in reality, we were just spending money that we really didn’t have, but that didn’t matter then and it still doesn’t today. She had good intentions in mind. It actually felt like she wanted to make me happy. Weird concept.



          Today as an adult, I don’t frequent fast food joints at all. Actually they almost gross me out. The reason being is I had a pre-mid life crisis at 28 years old. I came to a place in life where my physical appearance was disturbing. My body was a direct result from eating out often and numerous unhealthy eating habits. Not to mention I wasn’t living the active lifestyle a normal 28 year old man should. And I was ready for change. So that is what I did. I began a regular exercise routine, stopped eating unhealthy foods such as deep fried anything. As the time went by, this new outlook became an obsession and soon a way of life. Its funny how once I began to make a conscience decision to watch what I eat, I also began to read the nutritional facts on the back of packaged foods and menus at restaurants. It really helped me to make better decisions about what I eat. These days I can pass by any fast food restaurant and not even give a second thought to stopping to eat.