As Bob Seger sings in Old Time Rock n Roll, there might be a tune playing in your soul when visiting fast food restaurants. This song might go, “Just take that old Ronald off the shelf. I’ll just visit him all by myself. Today’s McDonald’s ain’t got the same soul. I like that old time fast food restaurant. Just don’t take me to a cold and gray one. You’ll never even get me to order. In ten minutes, I’ll be out of the door. I like that old time fast food restaurant. That kind of playland just soothes my soul. I reminisce about the days of old. In that old time McDonalds.”
The fast food PlayPlace. What thoughts come to your mind. Do you still take your children to play on them, while you eat junk food?? Is it a regular playtime activity for the kids?? Or has the PlayPlace in your area been removed or it is still there, but has been closed for three years?? Why am I discussing playgrounds and fast-food play areas as a 21-year-old?? I don’t know. I don’t really think fast-food restaurants contribute much good to society and we would be much healthier without them. I know hanging out at the park playground and going outside in their own yards or at the community park would be of greater benefit to kids than hanging out at fast food restaurants. Fast food playgrounds and ball pits may not be the cleanest places and maybe the worst place to take your kid to if you are trying to stay healthy.
But my heart feels the same way it feels about preserving historic towns and small mom and pop businesses, video rental stores (see my blogpost on the remaining video rental stores: http://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com/2022/05/where-can-i-still-rent-videos-at-video.html), bookstores, historic theaters, and old electronics. I probably wouldn’t be writing this article if the only fast-food restaurant which had their dining room and their playground open which I knew of during the pandemic was the Carl’s Jr in my hometown of Cameron Park. Sadly, they removed their playground equipment in May of 2021, but the restaurant does remains open. I honestly don’t know if the playground or dining room was open the entire time during the pandemic, but it was at least open in May of 2020 because I saw someone cleaning it for customers to use. I believe this experience led to my quest to see if any other restaurants kept their playground open, or if this was sadly, the end of the Fast Food PlayPlace era as we knew it. Do you know of any other restaurant playgrounds that kept their entrance open to children during that time, or it doesn’t really matter anymore because so many more have reopened since then??
The playground was removed 10 years after the other Carl’s Jr outdoor playgrounds in the rest of the Sacramento region including the two Folsom locations. But it wasn’t the last one in the Sacramento metro. There are a couple that remain, the Lincoln Way location in Auburn and the location in Galt. McDonalds and Chick fil A restaurants still have the playgrounds, and a couple Burger King restaurants in the area still have a playground.
Here is another question, are there any old-school McDonald’s that still look like the location in the photos that haven’t been remodeled or have no plans to get remodeled?? Could they be a tourist attraction like the last Blockbuster video in Bend, Oregon, historic main street mom and pop businesses, or the neon signs on Route 66?? Or will these places go the way of the dinosaur, and they get all redone in the modern 21st century look like everywhere else?? If so, what does that say about the direction of industries or values that are considered outdated: video rental stores, mall department stores, CD/DVD stores, old technology, items or places?? These questions bug me because one of the businesses I have thought about getting into is to open a Christian bookstore to fill the void the Family Christian Store left when they closed their stores. And I want to see the remaining Christian bookstore in the Sacramento area, Family Books and Gifts, succeed and be able to capture the Christian bookstore market that many of these places left behind. I have drawn several plans for new businesses and analyze the markets by researching populations and demographics of areas to determine the threshold of what the market conditions need to be to be successful. Is there still a market for these old-fashioned businesses or old looks of businesses and an opportunity for a newcomer to come in and be successful in these dying industries?? Can a remnant of these places be preserved for an entire generation and even until Jesus comes back. Or will they completely go away also? I am concerned that people, including myself, may someday (hopefully never happens) have to conform to a way and a lifestyle they may not have chosen for themselves, such as forcing people to wear masks and stay home, shop online, accept and conform to certain agendas or patterns of life even if they desire to do differently. I want there to be places where there isn’t the same grind and same trends and same lifestyles as everywhere and everyone else. Seeing an old school video rental store in the age of streaming, being able to watch tapes on a working VCR in 2023 and future years, having CD/DVD/Record/Book stores to shop at so I don’t have to stream my favorite movies or buy my favorite movies, or music albums, or books on the Internet, and being able to do all my shopping at local businesses or even nearby big-box stores that aren’t named Amazon, Walmart, or Target, so I don’t have to support companies that give money to ideologies I disagree with, or trying to live like its 1995, 1982, 1950, or even in the 1800s in 2023. Here is another question I am leaving you to think about, writing as an avid traveler, “Where is the excitement in going anywhere if every place looks the same and there are no differences with going to Duluth, Minnesota, or Dallas, Texas, versus staying in my hometown??”
But here is something that you and I need that we can turn to forever, regardless of what happens, to give us peace and comfort in tumultuous times.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
2 Corinthians 1:3–5
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