Gordon Cragg, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Geoff Carter
Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in noting how the dinner hour has changed from a quiet time when everybody was “eating in” and the only restaurant customers were the resident bachelor mechanic and a lonesome schoolteacher, to now resembling the INDY 500 with emphasis on the pit stops.
Instead of a relaxing pause at the end of the day, the “dining out” dinner hour now is akin to opening the gate at a demolition derby.
The evening meal is no longer sitting up to a family table and grabbing a knife and fork to dig into mom’s meatloaf. It is jumping in the car to drive to a waiting line where you negotiate a food deal that can have the financial aspects of buying a house.
And then there is the “opportunity” to tip 20 percent or so to someone who simply hands you a bag with your dinner encased in plastic containers that can only be opened by safecrackers.
Three new restaurants have recently opened within sight of where the keeper and Phyllis most often eat in. The new eateries join the race between eating places and banks to see which can build the most establishments along Mineral Point Road.
This makes it easy for the keeper to borrow money so he and Phyllis could eat out if they were so inclined, which they are not.
Please pass the meatloaf!
Photo by Bill Stokes