This is a crude drawing of my mouth and the McDonald's quarter pounder with cheese that recently entered it. Rewinding a little bit...
This is Fast Food Nation, a book I read back in the late fall of 2002. I had just graduated from college, and was rediscovering the idea of choosing my own books and reading t
hem just because I felt like it. Fast Food Nation was fascinating, and it was also frightening/angering (yeah, I know). Eye-opening book plus 22-year-old idealist equals McDonald's boycott. No more little hamburgers with their tasty minced onions. No more shamrock shakes. Never would a McGriddle pass my lips (it was added to the menu after I started my boycott... dang). December 8, 2002. From that day forward.Fast forwarding a little bit...
Earlier this week, we had a big event at work. It was a healthy lifestyles carnival of sorts for about a thousand kinds in the area. Part of the focus of this event was to get kids thinking about eating healthy, and we got all sorts of product donated for them to sample. Bananas, yogurt, carrots, juice, and so forth. We even got some pre-packaged apple slices, complete with caramel dipping sauce. We had a few extras of the apple slices, so a colleague tossed me a bag. I was really hungry... the apples looked good... I saw the picture of Ronald McDonald on the bag but didn't put two and two together...
...Until it was too late. At slice #6 I looked straight into the eyes of Ronald and a chill passed through me. I was a little horrified, and confused at the same time. Apple slices? Did these really count? Did I throw away my impressive 5-year record for apple slices?
The only thing to do then, was get in the car that evening and drive to a McDonald's - a really ghetto McDonald's, preferably - and do it right.
So I did it. Right. And hilariously, that night I felt a little lost. If I was no longer a person who didn't eat at McDonald's... who was I? I've decided to reclaim my identity then, with a new quest. No fast food (except for Subway and/or a Wendy's baked potato in emergency road trip situations) for one year. Oh yeah, and no McDonald's ever again. Just because it's fun.
1 comment:
I hadn't eaten at McDonalds in probably a year and a half, but then twice in the past few months I've had their Asian salad. Whatever; it has edamame! And mandarin oranges! Stop judging me!
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