Raise a Mug to A&W
Leaving Manistee, we stopped by one of the few surviving A&W’s still in its original location. This was the perfect end to this family get-away. I remember stopping late at 
night at the A&W drive-in near the Blue Water Bridge as we came home from camping at Georgian Bay, Ontario. This was before we’d ever heard of McDonald’s. (Yes, students, there really was a time in the early sixties when A&W’s outnumbered McDonalds about 4-to-1. I was probably ten before I saw my first Golden Arches. Anyway…)
We’d be traveling home, tired from vacation, like that family in Norman Rockwell's familiar before-and-
after print. This was several years before our cars had "air," and the wind of the open-window held our sleepy heads in place. Somewhere in a dream, I felt the car stop and bright lights on my face. “Time to eat," Dad would say, "Tell Mom what you want.”
My eyes adjusted to the glare, and there we were at the old A&W.
The hamburger
choices back then were based on size alone: Baby Burger, Teen Burger, Mama Burger, and Papa Burger, etc.—right out of The Three Bears. We were allowed to get Teen Burgers before we were teens—it felt so cool.
But having a frosty mug of A&W root beer was the real treat— it still is. Sitting there in Manistee sipping through those suds with my kids brought back magic memories and a longing to talk to my Dad (as I sometimes do in dreams).
My mom still tells the greatest stories about our vacations. I’ll share them sometime. Until then, I’ll just say this: They were nothing like this past weekend. For one thing, we never stayed in a motel—not once. All of my childhood vacations began with the smell of our unfolded canvas tent, the dull clanging of aluminum poles slipping from their bag to the ground, and the metallic thwack of a mallet sinking stakes into sandy soil.
The camping trips began that way, but the ones to Canada ended with a sip of civilization at that old A&W.
.
P.S.
Mom, I know you'll be reading this. Thanks for all the great memories, and for letting us have Teen Burgers before our time.
night at the A&W drive-in near the Blue Water Bridge as we came home from camping at Georgian Bay, Ontario. This was before we’d ever heard of McDonald’s. (Yes, students, there really was a time in the early sixties when A&W’s outnumbered McDonalds about 4-to-1. I was probably ten before I saw my first Golden Arches. Anyway…) 
We’d be traveling home, tired from vacation, like that family in Norman Rockwell's familiar before-and-
after print. This was several years before our cars had "air," and the wind of the open-window held our sleepy heads in place. Somewhere in a dream, I felt the car stop and bright lights on my face. “Time to eat," Dad would say, "Tell Mom what you want.”
My eyes adjusted to the glare, and there we were at the old A&W.The hamburger
choices back then were based on size alone: Baby Burger, Teen Burger, Mama Burger, and Papa Burger, etc.—right out of The Three Bears. We were allowed to get Teen Burgers before we were teens—it felt so cool.But having a frosty mug of A&W root beer was the real treat— it still is. Sitting there in Manistee sipping through those suds with my kids brought back magic memories and a longing to talk to my Dad (as I sometimes do in dreams).
My mom still tells the greatest stories about our vacations. I’ll share them sometime. Until then, I’ll just say this: They were nothing like this past weekend. For one thing, we never stayed in a motel—not once. All of my childhood vacations began with the smell of our unfolded canvas tent, the dull clanging of aluminum poles slipping from their bag to the ground, and the metallic thwack of a mallet sinking stakes into sandy soil.
The camping trips began that way, but the ones to Canada ended with a sip of civilization at that old A&W..
P.S.
Mom, I know you'll be reading this. Thanks for all the great memories, and for letting us have Teen Burgers before our time.
posted by .Tom Kapanka | 5:11 AM
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