Category: Restaurants

We showed up at the IHOP after church expecting nothing different from any other visit to IHOP. We arrived a little later than normal so we had to wait to be seated. I went to the hostess station and she asked how many.  I said two.  Then she asked my name and I told her. Then she asked me to spell it.  Then she asked how many and I said two again. Later when she called our name, she mispronounced it.  She didn’t seem that excited to be at work but still managed to walk way ahead of us as she took us to our booth. Before my wife sat down, she noticed a brown, wet spot in her seat.  She said, “I can’t sit here!” I told her to sit on my side.  I was going to run to the restroom and someone could wipe down my seat while I was gone.  She was ok with that and I flagged down someone and asked them to clean my seat while I went to the restroom.

Over the years, my family and I have occasionally eaten at IHOP on Sundays after church.  IHOP isn’t the only restaurant like this where we eat on Sundays. Most of the time, we eat at home on Sundays. But this story takes place at a time when we were eating at IHOP more often.  

One Sunday, I was a little more hungry than usual and decided that I would order the country fried steak meal. We placed our order and in a short while our waitress came back and told me said “We are out of CFS”. I was confused so I replied “What?” Then she told me, “We are out of CFS, country fried steak.” Since it’s not listed as CFS in the menu and I have never heard it referred to as CFS, I was surprised when she told me this and didn’t really understand what she was talking about until I got the explanation. I quickly ordered something else from the menu and didn’t really think anything about it. There was nothing else noteworthy about that trip.

My father was traveling through Memphis when I was a kid. As he was leaving Memphis he stopped at a McDonalds on Summer Avenue near the edge of town. He went into the store, went up to the counter and placed his order. He wanted a cheeseburger. A cheeseburger costs 65 cents. He told them he wanted a 65 cheeseburger. They understood that he wanted 65 cheeseburgers. The guy travelling with my dad got his order quickly. My dad was waiting for a while. This was a time when you didn’t pay for your meal until after they had the food at the counter. They brought out a big grocery bag full of McDonalds cheeseburgers. This is when they discovered that my dad only wanted one burger.

My wife’s grandmother lived in Nashville right before she died. A few weeks after she passed away, my wife, my mother-in-law and I went to Nashville to help clean out her apartment. We traveled in two vehicles. My wife and I were in my small pickup truck. We were going to transport bedroom furniture. My mother-in-law was going to bring everything else in her car.  It was a long day full of memories. We also visited with my wife’s aunt and cousin.  They lived in Nashville.  I don’t remember how early we got into town but it was very late before we were leaving. I was ready to get home as quickly as possible but everyone else wanted to stop for a snack. That’s when we decided to stop at the Waffle House.