WHAT'LL YA HAVE?


A few weeks ago Peggy and I went to the mall to walk.  Yep,  that's right,  to walk.  No shopping,  just walking.  I need to go more often than I do.  The doctor says the exercise is good for me and actually,  I enjoy it.  The only problem is finding the time.  Seems there are never enough hours in the day.  When we go to the mall to walk I usually walk up and down each and every nook and cranny but Peggy will kind of take the short cuts and stay on the main walkway.  Because of this, I walk faster than she does and sometimes get a little ahead.

On this particular day I was a little in front of Peggy but not as far ahead as I thought.  As I rounded a corner I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye.  I know this has happened to you before.  I thought to myself,  "what was that?"  As I turned to look again I saw Peggy.........but who was that old man she was walking with?  As I rub my eyes and looked again I suddenly realized the old man was me.  I was looking into a mirror.  Oh no I thought.  That can't be me.....I'm not that old....it must be my eyesight. That's when I decided I needed to go have my eyes checked.  When we got home I tried to remember the last time I had gone to an eye doctor.  Best I could remember it had been over 40 years.  That's right,  over 40 years.  You see,  I've never liked doctors.  I once read that most of the time when you feel sick,  by the time you get to the doctor your body is already healing itself.  Until my surgery I never went to the doctor and if not for the EMS and Peggy and my daughter Vicki,  I probably wouldn't have gone to the hospital that day.  My mom use to say her papa use to say the cemetery was full of doctors mistakes.  Anyway, I called and made myself an appointment with the eye doctor.

As I had made my appointment I realized I would be going downtown Atlanta.  Now as I've told you before,  the doctors have me on a pretty strict diet.  In fact they have almost stopped my going out to eat because it's so hard to find healthy food in restaurants  We use to always take advantage of  our trips downtown as an excuse for a meal.  Many times we would just go to the Varsity.  Oh I know it's not fancy or anything but there is something special about a glorified steak, a chili dog, onion rings and a frosted orange or PC.  If you're from metro Atlanta and have been to the Varsity very often,  you know that as soon as you walk up to the counter, someone is gonna yell and ask you...  "WHAT'LL YA HAVE?"   Have you ever wondered who the first person to ask "What'll you have " at the Varsity was?  Seems like a pretty good question to me.  Kind of like was the first person to ever milk a cow a pervert?  Oh well,,,back to the story.  Of course I knew there was no way I was going to eat At the Varsity but it was a good thought.  Then as I was thinking, as it seems is normal for me,  my mind began to rush.  I mean it began to run 90 miles per hour, and I started to think about how much of our lives are centered around  eating.

I remember as a very young boy of going to see the Atlanta Crackers play baseball at Ponce de Leon ballpark with my  dad.  They had the very best ice cream cones that have ever been.  And sometimes after the games we would go to the BAR-B-QUE Kitchen in Brookhaven and some of the ball players would always be in there eating.  I even met Eddie Mathews and Bob Montag there.  And I remember Dad loading the whole family up and taking us to a new hamburger joint they had just opened out on Peachtree Road.  They had hamburgers for 15 cents.  Dad said they were going to open more of these drive-ins in Atlanta but this was the first one.  They called it McDonalds.  Oh and did you ever eat at the Rio Vista.?  All the catfish you could eat.  And how about Lums.  Great hot dogs and all kinds of beer.  Was the first dark beer I ever saw.  And if you wanted nice,  you could always go to the Coach and 6 or several other quality restaurants.  I remember on mine and Peggy's first date we went to a place called Sturdlies Steak House.  In my opinion they had the best steaks in Atlanta at the time.  If memory serves me, that was our date....just dinner....but it was full night.  Our second date she suggested where we go but I will save that story for another post.

The first night of our honeymoon we spent on the 23 floor of the Holiday Inn in West Memphis Arkansas, looking up the Mississippi River.  It was a very large suite on the corner of the building with wrap around windows  We decided to just order room service and the meal was fantastic.  The next morning when we went to check out and settle our bill,  they said the meal was on the house and congratulations.  We drove to San francisco and then flew to Hawaii for a few days.  Our first morning there we decided to once again just order room service and eat on the balcony overlooking the beach.  When they brought our breakfast, the trays were garnished with orchards.  We were amazed because there is no telling what the flowers would have cost at home.

I can recall eating at the San Jacinta  Inn in Houston Texas and at Mama Leone's in New York City.  The first Red lobster I ever ate at was in St. Petersburg Florida and I remember thinking I bet a restaurant like this would go over good in Atlanta. 

Yes......much of our life is lived around a table of food.....some good...some not so good.  I like almost everything there is to eat.....everything but hominy.  If you don't want me to eat just put hominy on the table.  I once had a vision of  a man entering into hell.  They were going to have a feast to welcome him there.  The  Devil was sitting on his throne surrounded by 666 lawyers.  The tables were full of beautiful china.  When everyone sat down to eat the bowls of food were uncovered and they were all filled with hominy.  From the day I had that vision,  I have been convinced hominy was of the devil.

You know,  I may get up in the morning and make Peggy's breakfast for her.  But before I cook,  I'm going to smile at her and ask...."WHAT'LL YA HAVE?"