My Childhood Dream

Now that school is back is session (groan) I have less time to do more important things like drink wine, blog, and read 50 Shades of Grey.  WHY did I ever decide that continuing my education was a good idea?  I'll probably end up working at my current job for the rest of my life, at a bar, or in a gas station.  No big deal.  Except it won't be at Kwik Trip because those people are doughnut-pushers!  I enjoy Kwik Trip for all its convenience and cleanly, non-ghetto atmosphere but if someone tries to sell me another box of those goddamn Glazer doughnuts, I'm going to cut a bitch!  Does it LOOK like I need another doughnut or sugary drink to go with my three chins?!  Thanks, but no thanks.

Anyway.

A co-worker and I were talking about what our favorite restaurants were when we were kids and I immediately thought of Old Country Buffet.  YES!

OCB was a crowd favorite amongst us three kids for many years of our adolescence.  Every year when our birthdays rolled around and we got to pick a restaurant for dinner...guess what all three of us kids picked?  OCB!  Three times a year, for about twelve years straight!  We may or may not have had a pact with each other to choose OCB as our birthday dinner destination because we did NOT get to go there for any other reason whatsoever.  My dad hated the idea of getting your own food.  He wants to relax and order something and have it brought to him.  What he doesn't want to do is try to keep track of three food-crazed kids tearing around a buffet like it was their last meal on planet Earth.  (A concept I totally agree with and understand now that I am an adult but my nine year-old self just didn't give two shits what Dad thought!)  There was NOTHING better than pizza, Mac and Cheese, and mashed potatos...food that mom could have easily and probably greatfully made at home...at OCB, because for some reason, it was ten times better.  It was all about being independant and being able to pick what you wanted to eat, out of a sea of millions of other foods.  (ok, it wasn't millions but to a kid the posibilities are endless)  And the build-your-own desserts?!  Don't even go there!  We would inhale our 2-3 plates of regular food in order to get to dessert area and then have to try ONE OF EVERYTHING...plus the soft-serve ice cream machine with 10+ different topping options...we were like miniature crackheads.  It was our parents worst nightmare but we didn't care.  And if we were well-behaved and lucky (of course we were, are you kidding me?!) we would walk down the hall (OCB was in a strip-mall) to Shinders, a magazine store, so that my dad could look at hunting magazines and I would try to nonchalauntly look at those weird magazines that were blacked out for some reason that I couldn't figure out.  Why sell magazines when you couldn't see the cover and didn't know what you were buying?!  I was so confused.

I haven't been to OCB for a very long time, although I know it's still in business.  It has become less attractive to me as an adult, maybe because I sympathize with those parents chasing after their screaming/psychotic/monstrous children and make sure they don't terrorize everyone else just trying to enjoy their meals.  I might go there sometime, maybe on a Tuesday, when it's less likely to be busy.  Maybe on Senior Citizens night, it should be nice and quiet then, right?

Wait.  Do they still not serve alcoholic beverages there?  Maybe THAT'S why my parents hated going there so much.  :)