Ahhh....those Golden Arches

Today, as I was driving my child home from a Dr.'s appointment, we stopped in at McDonald's for a drive-through Happy Meal. Of course, since I relate everything to Gen Plus and the 50 plus marketplace and have been washed over by the nostalgia of the great new series Boomers!, I immediately reflected back to my youth.

When I was about 8 years old, a McDonald's franchise (the first one for our city!) opened up. And it was a really big deal. At that time, fast food was limited to rollerskating waitresses at the Orange Julep, where you'd drive up, park your car, roll down the window and wait for a waitress to skate over and take your order. When the order was ready, she'd bring it over on a tray that attached to the driver's side window and we'd have a blast eating in the car.

So the idea of fast food, McDonald's style, was incredible. Plus they were advertising that your meal would cost under a dollar...that you'd get change back from your dollar! Our whole family of 6 could eat for under $6.00. That was very appealing to my Dad from a financial point of view and for my Mum, from a practical perspective (no cooking, no cleaning up, happy children...)

And so off we'd go, dressed up in our finest, along with many of our neighbors, to experience a great burger that always tasted the same, crunchy fries that we thought were to die for, and real milk milkshakes that gave Dairy Queen a run for her money! (They had to come out with the Blizzard in order to make a comeback -- you'd hold it upside down for 3 seconds and if it fell out of the cup, you'd your money back AND a free new Blizzard.)

Fast forward to my teenage years where McDonald's was THE place to go after snuggling with your boyfriend in the movies. And where my grade ten boyfriend spent all his savings on taking me there through a summer (I found that out later...after we'd split up...and yes, I felt really bad about it!)

And now...for my child, no nostalgia of remembering the signs that proclaimed "over 1 million served"...just the promise of a Narnia toy which is far more important than the meal. Well...that was my little Boomer blast from the past for the day. Loved those arches.