You know what made car alarms so annoying? They never stopped. They went on and on and on and on and on. And on. And on and on and on and...
You get it. Plus, inevitably there wasn't anyone actually breaking into the car that was shrieking in front of your apartment in the middle of the night.
Which makes the annoyance of car alarms different from the present situation in our country, where indeed a criminal is right now trying to steal our country, abusing peaceful residents one day, defacing public monuments the next, all the while planning to corrupt our election system so he and his cronies can never be removed from power no matter how unpopular they become. The danger is very immediate and real.
So no false alarms here. Constant warning, as loud as possible, is justified, maybe even essential.
But also deadening. Soul-sucking. So the strategy at EGD is to occasionally turn our gaze away from the horrific shit show in Washington — and increasingly around the country — and regard something that doesn't suck.
Such as this frosty mug of A & W root beer I was served earlier this month in Weston, Michigan. I hadn't eaten at an A & W in 20 years, if not more, if ever. But we were driving my brother's hot new Audi Q6 — an all-electric SUV, it seemed a challenge to get it to Ontonagon without ending up on the side of the road. And was. Planning was required.
So we were making one of three pitstops required to make the seven hour drive, timed for an early lunch, and walked over to this A & W. Where I ordered a double cheeseburger and a diet — thank you Mr. Diabetes! — root beer.
"Do you want that in a frosty mug?" the clerk asked.
I was taken aback — a frosty glass mug? In a fast food joint? it's as if I spied a worker seated next to the deep fryer, churning butter.
"Hell yes!" I said, or words to that effect, and she produces from a cold case a big, heavy, indeed frosty glass mug.
The sugarless root beer was quite good, as was the cheeseburger — I had a hunch that A & W fare wouldn't be the queasy, why-did-I-put-that-in-my-mouth? offal found at McDonald's. After we ate, when I went to deposit my garbage at the can by the door, I placed my mug on a tray, along with all the other used mugs, and marveled at this nod to tradition, which required an expenditure of time, effort, much mug washing, and no doubt considerable breakage. I thought maybe A & W Restaurants were family-owned; they're not. But they are the only major restaurant chain that is franchisee-owned, meaning someone closer to the customers decided to go to the effort to keep the frosty mug tradition alive.
It's worth it. As was the typically glorious weekend at Ontonagon, complete with cigars, sauna, tomahawk steak, conversation, lake swimming, and the largest beach bonfire ever constructed by mankind, in my estimation. On the way back, we stopped in Weston again, topped up the battery, and hit the A & W, where I ordered exactly the same thing: double cheeseburger, frosty mug of diet root beer. It was still good.
Does the persistence of the A & W frosty glass mug in the annus horribilis of 2025 counterbalance the destruction of democracy, the erosion of freedom, the encouragement of the cruel and the dampening of hopes of any of this ending anytime soon, if at all? No. Not in the slightest. But it's not nothing, and at this point I'll take any glimmer I can get. America may not be great, anymore, but it is still good, at certain times and in certain places.
When I was in highschool I worked at a Dog-n-Suds -- pretty much the same type of restaurant. They were all drive-ins back then. We made the root beer right there in the restaurant. In a big vat, we mixed a syrup with water and 100 pounds of sugar to make a concentrate. From there we would mix the concentrate with more water in a big bucket and then dump it into a machine that cooled it and added the carbonation. I made and served a lot of suds back then. Washed a lot of mugs, too.
ReplyDeleteFor the north suburbanites - a Dog-n-Suds still operates in Grayslake and possibly a few other locations. And with drive in car service.
DeleteMust be a pill to have to worry about finding charging stations. A hybrid at least offers some choice.
ReplyDeleteAnd then you have to sit at the charging stations waiting and waiting.
ReplyDeleteNot completely true. It takes me about 15 min to charge from 15% to 80%. I can go from Chicago to Minneapolis with only one stop. I'm not even done eating and going to the bathroom before my car is ready to go.
DeleteThe current "zero sugar" version of A&W root beer is pretty bad compared to what it used to taste like. I'm glad you like it but it's no longer worth drinking for me.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid in northern Wisconsin, I loved it when my parents took us to A&W. Sometimes we even went in the evening in our pajamas! Those were the days of car hops who would hang the tray of root beers on the driver's side window. I remember that the large root beer was 10 cents, medium was a nickel, and there was also a "baby beer" for the littlest kids.
ReplyDeleteWhen my brothers were pretty wee (I came along later, intentionally), my folks took them to A&W. The younger brother got the "baby" size mug of root beer. Unbeknownst to my mom, that mug didn't make it back to the restaurant. It lived in one of our kitchen cabinets for many years. I presume it broke at some point; otherwise, she'd still have it.
DeleteI had the same experience in Eastern Washington. I also liked the floats with their orange soda. One of my favorite childhood memories.
Delete"Unbeknownst to my mom, that mug didn't make it back to the restaurant. It lived in one of our kitchen cabinets for many years."
DeleteWe have a similar, no-doubt purloined, cute little A & W heirloom in our kitchen cabinet to this day.
I feel I can almost taste the root beer, delicious
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I travel in his electric car. It has been the opposite of pain for me. He plans. We stop. I walk around and go to the bathroom and my body is much happier and we carry on. Many of our overnight destinations have chargers on the property now. At home we have solar panels and spend zero dollars to run the car all the rest of the time. I have a hybrid. Works great for us.
ReplyDeleteSpend $0 to run the car the rest of the time?
DeleteI'm sorry but that's just not how it works you install solar panels on top of your house for 15 or $20,000 and then until you're combined electric and gasoline Bill reaches that amount amortization you're paying exactly the same amount you paid when you bought gasoline and electricity from the power company it takes years before it costs you to $0
It’s definitely not nothing. Thank you, as always.
ReplyDeleteAside from the inconvenience of finding a charging station and waiting for the charge to complete, how much does it cost to charge up an EV? Comparable to filling up a gas tank?
ReplyDeleteGoing to the A&W was a treat when I was a kid. Especially if you got a black cow. It's still good root beer .. there's a bottle in my fridge right now. Maybe not as good as Tommy's but definitely better than Dog and Suds.
If we are counting on the same people who brought us electric cars to save democracy boy are we fucked
ReplyDeleteThere are these wonderful little things in life that seem to keep us sane.
ReplyDeleteWill they stay forever and keep us from tipping too far into the beyond... or will we survive long enough to see these small flickering lights in the darkness be snuffed out, ending all hope.
I will always be amazed at how long people keep up hope. From slaves to Ukrainians, and the people in the Warsaw ghetto to the suffragettes people display incredible resilience. Do we still have such resilience, or are we too modern American?
Typo: "and she products from a cold case...." Possibly should be "produces from a cold case"
ReplyDeleteFixed, thanks.
DeleteIn the early 1960's, when I was 7, 8 and 9 years old, Southside Day Camp would spend most summer days at Calumet Park, bus to Green Lake for swimming, recreational and instruction, and then head back to the South Side, and Southeast Side for drop off at our houses. Every Tuesday though, on the way back from Green Lake all 3 busses would stop at A&W for a root beer - Torrence Avenue, probably - maybe. Not sure. Perhaps it's still there(?)
ReplyDeleteIs that Weston, WI?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteDamn bro, you gots the good life.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad liked A&W, particularly for their chili dogs, which were called Coney Island hot dogs, and we regularly stopped at A&Ws on car trips. This was back in the day when carhops affixed a tray to your window and delivered the food to your car. Less mess in the restaurant, a lot more mess in the car (with three kids in the back seat). A basic mug of root beer was five cents. Probably more now.
ReplyDeleteBack in the Eighties, my first wife and I would drive from Evanston to Woodstock, to visit her grandmother. We would stop at an A & W, on the edge of one of the towns along U.S. 14...Barrington, Fox River Grove, Crystal Lake...can't remember exactly where it was.
ReplyDeleteBut it was out in open country. And there were carhops, and aluminum trays on the window. Felt more like the Fifties or the Sixties. That drive-in is probably long gone. Paved over and unrecognizable, like the rest of the northwest suburban sprawl. Forty-plus years is a long time. First wife lives out that way now.
My A & W Root Beer mug is short, thick, and heavy.
The logo has an arrow on it, and it's red and white.
Looks like an archery target. No idea how old the mug is.
A&W Root Beer in a frosty mug is the best beverage I ever consumed. My father always stopped whenever he passed one. The closest was on River Road in Des Plaines next to a driving range. It was worth risking the occasional golf ball that breached the fence. Woodfield Mall had one until a couple of years ago where I took my nieces for Black Cows. A sticky affair that was worth clean up.
ReplyDeleteWent to Dog and Suds after Little League baseball games growing up in Champaign, Illinois. A nice memory!
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, we were drinking out of frosty glass mugs last night. Draft beer, not root beer, but still! For the first time in a LONG time, we decided to visit the Barnaby's Pizza location in Niles. (For some reason, its reputation is not as strong as the one in Northbrook, which we've never been to, but it seemed fine to us.)
ReplyDeleteI was marveling that, in a world of constant change and "improvement," the decor, ordering system, and experience seemed identical to the first time I visited a Barnaby's location in 1976.
Some caveats to that, of course. The available beers served in the glass pitchers were different (and better), there may have been a little space set aside for video gambling machines (ahem), and there were probably way more TVs, though almost all were turned off. But I was delighted at what a wonderful throw-back it was to a different era.
We enjoy many different kinds of pizza these days, but theirs did not disappoint.
OK, yes. I do like the diversions from all that is horrid in the US right now. But yesterday you introduced the brain worm song about the Erie canal, and today its the "A&W rootbeer has that frosty mug taste. Only A&W rootbeer has that frosty mug taste..." commercial! Still, I'm glad you and your sib had a good time in the UP, and that you shared the adventure with us.
ReplyDelete