I spent some time with my family this past weekend and we talked about my previous post about the 1982 World’s Fair. As we talked about the trip, we started talking about another notable meal that we ate during this trip.
The night we arrived in Knoxville, we decided to go to McDonald’s to eat. We were staying with my cousin and his wife and were going to take them to eat with us. We had traveled to Knoxville in our family car. It was a late 70’s model 4 door Impala. We referred to it as the “fire car” because it fire engine red and my dad was a volunteer fireman. The car had plenty of room for the six of us travelling from West Tennessee. It did not have plenty of room for eight people going to McDonald’s across town. I don’t remember exactly how we fit eight people in a six passenger car. I seem to remember four people in the front seat and four in the back. No one was comfortable and there was constant adjusting, nudging and laughing. On the way to McDonald’s, we decided that we needed to get the food to-go because we didn’t think all of us would ever fit back in the car. My dad went through the drive-thru and we didn’t decide what we were ordering until we were at the menu were they take your order. This was also before McDonald’s had the “Value Meals” that you order by the number. My dad was trying to communicate with the person on the speaker and find out exactly what we wanted. Just getting the sandwiches straight was no small task. After my dad told them what sandwiches we wanted, they asked if we wanted fries. Naturally, he asked us. After a small discussion it was decided that everyone would get fries. Then they asked him what size. At the time, McDonald’s only had two sizes, small and large. I think my dad was getting tired of asking us about everything and decided to speed things up and make the decision on his own. He told the person on the speaker that we would take medium fries. Everyone else in the car burst into laughter. We all knew medium fries were not an option. It was at this point that we decided that we would not get drinks with our meal. I’m not sure we would have been able to hold them without spilling them.
