I've long believed that outside of Mormon culture drinking (of the alcohol variety) is less a personal choice indicating if you stand on moral high ground or grovel in a pit of societal filth and more just something that you do. When you're 5 you go to kindergarten, 13 you're officially a teenager, sixteen you drive a car and somewhere around there I would imagine you have your first drink. Its a coming of age sort of thing...a rite of passage, a cultural experience, more than a moral choice an individual makes. An average American youth whose parents drink casually and responsibly I don't think ever has a moment where a switch is flipped in their head and says "I think today is the day I will start my descent into hell" and goes and has a drink. That's the way that we (Mormons) are taught to think about drinking (not the descent into hell part the individual choice part). To us it IS a choice between right and wrong, good and evil. A drink to us is a very decided step in the wrong direction. Because (sigh) we know better.
As you all know I am not a drinker. Nor will I ever be. If you really must know I think it is gross, wasteful, and if this makes sense at all, insincere. I really don't respect it or appreciate what it does to people and to families. However, some of the people I love very most are drinkers. And in my time observing them I've been able to draw an interesting parallel with drinking culture and Mormon culture (are you curious?????)
In the following examples please substitute the word "drink" with the words "ice cream":
"Hey its your birthday! Let me buy you a drink!"
"Hey I think you're cute and nice, can I take you for a drink?"
"You got a new job! Awesome! Let me buy you a drink!"
"I haven't seen you in so long! Lets go get a drink now that you're back in town."
"We won our league's basketball championship! We're meeting up for a drink."
"Hard day at work? Wanna go for a drink?"
"You're boyfriend broke up with you? What a jerk. Lets go for a drink."
etc. etc.
Interesting right? Who knew ice cream was such a big part of our culture. No wonder Utah is the number 1 consumer of ice cream.
And in any of these scenarios I personally would substitute ice cream with fro yo. Or vodka but that's just me.
Peace.
"No amount of coffe, no amount of crying, no amount of whiskey, no wine, nothing else will do. I gotta have you" -- The Weepies
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The Epic Tragedy of Wall Drug (pronounced wale droog)
I drove across the country over the holiday weekend. An experience I would encourage everyone to have at least once. It really gives you some perspective on how big our country really is and there's nothing like seeing the crappy middle of nowhere towns some people live in to make you appreciate where you live. I told Molly somewhere in Wisconsin that I kind of wanted to just go to someone's front door and say "You know you don't have to live here right? There are better places than this."
When I drove cross country the first time in January we took I-80 through Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illonios, Indiana and finally Ohio. It was straight and flat and boring. Eastern Wyoming and Nebraska where the worst. Things got a little better through the I states. More of what you tend to think of when you think of Middle America: rolling hills, farmhouses, elephant eye tall corn etc.
On the way back Molly and I decided to take I-90 which took a little out of the way to the north so that we could see Mt. Rushmore. Something I've always wanted to do but knew I would never plan a trip there. Its very out of the way and in the middle of nowhere, you see.
Our first leg of the journey took us via the Ohio turnpike through Indiana and up through Chicago. We stopped for the night in Beloit, Wisconsin just over the state line. We ended up paying a little over $20 in tolls. Ridiculously infruriating. Especially to someone who has traveled miles and miles of good roads for free out west. Listen up you east side midwestern states: Take a look at whatever it is we're doing out here and copy it because driving through your states sucks.
Next day brought us Wisconsin, Minnesota (which boasts 10,000 lakes but I only saw a little pond) and finally South Dakota.
Whatever South Dakota lacks in natural beauty when compared to its neighbors it makes up for in quirkiness. The road was flat and straight but I got the feeling that the residences of the state didn't take themselves too seriously, and weren't afraid to exploit anything as some sort of attraction. I saw some pretty strange yard art (skeleton of a man leading a skeleton of a dinosaur on a leash) and a palace (read small indoor basketball arena) made of corn, but the most intriguing thing about the state was Wall Drug.
We hadn't been in SD for too long before we starting seeing signs for Wall Drug. We continued to see these signs for all 350 miles we were in the state. Some had cowboys on them, some dinosaurs, I saw rockets and Santa Clause all advertising Wall Drug. Is it a town? A store? As we neared our destination for the night (Rapid City) the signs became more frequent and I finally asked Molly to look up what Wall Drug was on her phone.
A google search revealed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Drug) that essentially Wall Drug is a big, old drugstore that had free ice water, five cent coffee and homemade doughnuts.
It is truly a testament of how stir crazy we must have been for this to cause the excitement it did. We were stopping. No matter what. We were getting our free ice water, home made doughnut and five cent coffee we wouldn't drink. We exited at Wall, SD. Followed the signs, excitment building and building. We were finally going to see the Wall Drug! We pulled up and parked. It was serioulsy half a block long. It was built in the style of the old west. So excited. We approached the door...and I wish I was making this up... I extended my hand to open the door...and...the lights went out. The door was locked. It was only eight o'clock at night! We had come so far! For the love! After all the build up and not even a free ice water. Biggest let down of the trip. So sad.
To add insult to injury we got some real crappy food at the cafe across the street.
Again sorry for the long post. I promised myself I would keep this short. Maybe because I wait so long in between blogs it builds up and all comes out at once like blog vomit.
When I drove cross country the first time in January we took I-80 through Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illonios, Indiana and finally Ohio. It was straight and flat and boring. Eastern Wyoming and Nebraska where the worst. Things got a little better through the I states. More of what you tend to think of when you think of Middle America: rolling hills, farmhouses, elephant eye tall corn etc.
On the way back Molly and I decided to take I-90 which took a little out of the way to the north so that we could see Mt. Rushmore. Something I've always wanted to do but knew I would never plan a trip there. Its very out of the way and in the middle of nowhere, you see.
Our first leg of the journey took us via the Ohio turnpike through Indiana and up through Chicago. We stopped for the night in Beloit, Wisconsin just over the state line. We ended up paying a little over $20 in tolls. Ridiculously infruriating. Especially to someone who has traveled miles and miles of good roads for free out west. Listen up you east side midwestern states: Take a look at whatever it is we're doing out here and copy it because driving through your states sucks.
Next day brought us Wisconsin, Minnesota (which boasts 10,000 lakes but I only saw a little pond) and finally South Dakota.
Whatever South Dakota lacks in natural beauty when compared to its neighbors it makes up for in quirkiness. The road was flat and straight but I got the feeling that the residences of the state didn't take themselves too seriously, and weren't afraid to exploit anything as some sort of attraction. I saw some pretty strange yard art (skeleton of a man leading a skeleton of a dinosaur on a leash) and a palace (read small indoor basketball arena) made of corn, but the most intriguing thing about the state was Wall Drug.
We hadn't been in SD for too long before we starting seeing signs for Wall Drug. We continued to see these signs for all 350 miles we were in the state. Some had cowboys on them, some dinosaurs, I saw rockets and Santa Clause all advertising Wall Drug. Is it a town? A store? As we neared our destination for the night (Rapid City) the signs became more frequent and I finally asked Molly to look up what Wall Drug was on her phone.
A google search revealed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Drug) that essentially Wall Drug is a big, old drugstore that had free ice water, five cent coffee and homemade doughnuts.
It is truly a testament of how stir crazy we must have been for this to cause the excitement it did. We were stopping. No matter what. We were getting our free ice water, home made doughnut and five cent coffee we wouldn't drink. We exited at Wall, SD. Followed the signs, excitment building and building. We were finally going to see the Wall Drug! We pulled up and parked. It was serioulsy half a block long. It was built in the style of the old west. So excited. We approached the door...and I wish I was making this up... I extended my hand to open the door...and...the lights went out. The door was locked. It was only eight o'clock at night! We had come so far! For the love! After all the build up and not even a free ice water. Biggest let down of the trip. So sad.
To add insult to injury we got some real crappy food at the cafe across the street.
Again sorry for the long post. I promised myself I would keep this short. Maybe because I wait so long in between blogs it builds up and all comes out at once like blog vomit.
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