Earlier this week I went over to the island (that’s Vancouver Island, we just call it “the island” because it’s bigger than some countries) to visit mom and took a few pics. Click the Photo Galleries link at the top of the site and select Duncan July 2008.
Duncan has changed quite a bit since I moved away in 1986. Back then it was only eight years since we got a McDonald’s. To me that was how you knew your town had arrived, you got a McDonald’s. Today, Duncan has nearly every fast food franchise you can think of. Not surprisingly a lot of the people I saw walking around were fat. Really fat. I don’t have anything against fat people, really, even fat people who like to wear skin-tight clothing that reveals every bulge in lurid 3D. But come on, Big Macs and Super Big Gulps are not food groups. The ground would often shake while we walked around town as these porcine citizens thundered about like big fat people who ate too much crappy food.
On the other hand, there is something very calming and wonderful about being able to drive only a few minutes out of town to get fresh eggs from a local farm or to watch deer, quail or other wildlife foraging within sight of your home. As long as they don’t poop on the lawn or eat your garden, of course.
McDonalds was a sign of prosperity in my home town as well. When we got a Wendy’s, though. . . we became a thriving metropolis.
We got a Wendy’s two years after the McDonald’s went up, within sight of it. Global competition had come to our sleepy little resource town! Back then you stood in a single line at Wendy’s and a person came by and wrote your order down on a pad then handed you the sheet of paper to give to the cashier. It was very quaint and orderly. Oddly enough, it didn’t seem to take any longer than the way they do it now.