>>Also? I tried one of those Cracker Barrel places for breakfast.
>>
>>ppptheeeewi. ppptheeewi. I can't believe these places are mobbed
>>constantly for breakfast.
>
>That's because you are not a Real American.
heh. My first exposure to Cracker Barrel, was with my step mother. She talked about this place constantly. All I could imagine was the Cracker Barrel general store that was on the way to my grandma's house. It was a wooden red building with barrels of pickles, candy sticks in glass jars, and assorted items, along with antiques for the tourists.
So, one Sunday, while visiting, she tells us we are going to visit the grandkids in C. Florida for a birthday party. But we are leaving early to eat at Cracker Barrel, since there wasn't one in Tampa at the time. The woman was possessed. She got nabbed for doing 75mph in a 55mpg construction zone, she was in such a hurry to get there.
I was not feeling well -- morning sickness -- and just felt woozy the whole time as we drove. I couldn't eat anything while there. But stepmom! The waitress put the plate in front of her and she dug in. Lowered her head to the plate and just started shoveling. Seriously: piece of toast in one hand, shoving the food onto the fork, the way farmers I'm familiar with eat. She didn't lift her head at all, not until it was done. I couldn't help but be amazed at how much she loved the food.
It has certainly become even more of a place that is a kind of event for people. I don't recall entering directly into the store part in the one in FL. This one, smack straight into the store, fetchingly adorned with old-timey things that are supposed to make you remember the olden daze. e.g., I saw a Zero candy bar, which I can remember seeing in the vending machines at a bowling alley as a kid. Every saturday, I'd look at it and wonder: *what* is a zero bar.
It reminded me of the way nature is an "event" to be experienced in Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. All prettied up and romanticized, for the conceit of "experiencing" the olden daze. To make this acceptable, Pollan self-mockingly calls it Virgilian Pastoral: someone who wants to harken back to the best of the olden daze, but keep the conveniences of the present. Apparently, that's supposed to make it acceptably different. Just deflate it all with a little self-ironic observation so it doesn't really count -- except when it does. Cracker Barrel lacks that zesty bit of self-ironic winking, but it's really very similar: branding an event-experience.