Latest / Family Tree Food Stories / Why the Best Meals Happen Off the Beaten Path: Roadside Diners, Drive-Ins, and Hidden Treasures

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Why the Best Meals Happen Off the Beaten Path: Roadside Diners, Drive-Ins, and Hidden Treasures · Family Tree Food Stories

0:00
Nancy May: Hello everybody.
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Welcome to another adventurous episode, or I should say, delicious episode of Family
0:07
Tree Food and Stories where every meal has a story and every story is a feast.
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before we start, I'm gonna remind you to go to Podcast Family Tree
0:15
Food Stories at the top of the page.
0:18
Go and find us at your favorite listening app, like share, subscribe,
0:23
and if you have a moment, help us with our survey because we're going
0:28
to be doing a survey or we are doing a survey to try and get your input on.
0:32
New things that we can do to make our show more delicious for you.
0:37
But this is a fun episode.
0:40
Sylvia, what do you think?
0:41
Sylvia Lovely: Oh yeah.
0:42
Sounds like a good one to me about those red side treasures.
0:46
Nancy May: That's right.
0:47
We're talking about.
0:48
Time travel, well kind of time travel when it meant that we could actually
0:53
drive along the road and not necessarily know where we're gonna end up at.
0:58
Not knowing where our favorite gas station cafe was, or watering hole,
1:02
or a diner, or whether you'd walk into a place that you kind of thought
1:07
looked good or maybe suspicious, and realizing that maybe shoe fly pie really.
1:14
Did have flies.
1:16
Sylvia Lovely: Mm-hmm.
1:16
Nancy May: It was a time before we had GPS and exit road signs.
1:21
and local newspapers.
1:23
My God, can you imagine what, what is a newspaper, Sylvia?
1:26
I have no idea what that is anymore.
1:28
Right.
1:29
Sylvia Lovely: I'm still kind of addicted.
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Nancy May: we used to have a great one up north, but sadly that one
1:33
disappeared, the Newtown Bee.
1:35
But in any case, we are talking about roadside stops and watering holes that
1:41
are just a little bit more memorable and maybe, yes, Elvis really did eat there.
1:46
We've got one of those here in Brooksville.
1:48
Interestingly enough.
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Sylvia Lovely: he may still be there.
1:50
We don't know, you know,
1:51
Nancy May: Right.
1:53
Elvis is ghost,
1:55
Sylvia Lovely: well, they say somewhere,
1:57
Nancy May: But this is all about making treasured memories.
2:00
The kinds that you're gonna never forget.
2:02
The stops that mom and dad took you to your sweetheart, your college friends.
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I don't know about you, but I remember going to Daytona Beach.
2:09
In college asking my mom if it was all right and she said, actually,
2:13
now who are you going with?
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And I said, oh, five guys from college.
2:16
I like, and she said, who?
2:17
And said, five guys.
2:18
It's is that a restaurant?
2:19
No,
2:20
Sylvia Lovely: Hey today.
2:21
Yeah.
2:22
Nancy May: and a girl roommate.
2:24
Yeah.
2:25
But we found south of the Boarder
2:26
Sylvia Lovely: yeah.
2:26
You know,
2:27
these were things that we saw firsthand.
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it wasn't a marketing ploy or anything like that.
2:32
It was this grand experiment, and you'd get attached to these places,
2:36
just like old, good old aunt.
2:38
Flow.
2:39
hey honey, what you having today?
2:40
How about a piece of pie and a diner attached to a gas station,
2:46
maybe two pumps, and a place where a pie might change your
2:49
life, or at least your afternoon.
2:51
We've had those memories.
2:52
All of us have, but sometimes.
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The coffee was burnt and sometimes the meatloaf was dry.
2:58
And the bathrooms well, okay.
3:01
They were about as big as a posted stamp and we don't know what else.
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And you took a leap of faith.
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Nancy May: But we found these roadside stands and they were just wonderful.
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They created such great memories.
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They were stops.
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That became regulars for your family.
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Eventually.
3:16
Sometimes you share them with others, but today we now have the interstate
3:21
and those small towns are bypassed hundreds of gas pumps and briskets.
3:26
And like you said, the bathrooms.
3:28
Well, maybe them were pretty grungy, but they didn't have a brand identity
3:32
and they really were a treasure hunt.
3:34
They were trademarks of small towns and communities, and I remember one that
3:40
was in Long Island when we were kids.
3:43
That was a sort of a roadside attraction that one of my
3:45
mom dear friends took us to.
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And it was.
3:48
It was sort of an old country store that had the best molasses,
3:53
chocolate covered lollipops.
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Who would think that a molasses chocolate covered lollipop would be so good?
3:59
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, I can imagine that that sounds pretty good- on-good.
4:03
Nancy May: Right.
4:03
Sylvia Lovely: And it was that unpredictability about what
4:05
might happen and who might show up a celebrity or otherwise is
4:09
both the charm and the problem.
4:12
Now, for instance, Bernie's grandmother, I don't know if
4:15
I've ever told you this or not.
4:16
She had a small diner on Highway 41 in Bonita Springs.
4:21
Now you can imagine, well Traveled road, lived in a trailer park, she
4:26
was as eccentric as the day is long.
4:28
Made dinner promptly at 4:30 every day for her.
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I think they were divorced, but she always made dinner for him
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'cause he lived in another trailer.
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Okay, so it was like the trailer park drama.
4:39
Right.
4:40
Two gas pumps and.
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She didn't like you, then she would say she didn't have bathrooms and
4:47
there probably weren't all those rules, you know, where, oh, you
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have so many people, you have to have so many bathrooms and all that.
4:52
There was none of that.
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, And, oh, I gotta tell you this, you may have to cut this one out, Nancy.
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She would never let a Cubian an in.
5:00
Nancy May: She, she would never let a, a what in
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Sylvia Lovely: a CUbian That's what called
5:05
Nancy May: that she called Cubians
5:07
Sylvia Lovely: yeah, Cubian.
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She did not ever let Cuan in 'cause there weren't any kind of
5:11
discrimination laws or anything.
5:13
Either.
5:13
You could do anything you wanted.
5:14
Anyway, she was quite a character
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Nancy May: Wow.
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Well, I've heard of co, I've heard of college kids not being
5:20
allowed into certain places,
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Sylvia Lovely: But not cu beans.
5:23
Nancy May: no
5:25
Sylvia Lovely: Oh.
5:25
She would talk about Cuban because that was when the boat lift was happening, I
5:29
guess.
5:29
And a lot of people coming anyway, but, she's dead and gone
5:32
now so we can talk about it.
5:33
Right.
5:34
But when it was good, it was deeply local.
5:36
not every one was a treasure, but you could have fried catfish in Mississippi.
5:40
Yum.
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Or green chilies in New Mexico.
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Yes.
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Ha ha.
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Hot roast beef sandwiches, drowning in gravy over mashed potatoes.
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They just don't serve that much anymore.
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And then chocolate pie that tasted like someone's grandmother baked it
5:55
that morning, and she probably did.
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Nancy May: Oh my gosh, that makes my mouth mortar and reminds me of a little town
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that we left not too long ago, a couple of years ago in Reding, Connecticut.
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And they have in, well it wasn't really a center of town,
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but it was in West Redding.
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And the one whistle stop train that went through, even to this
6:14
day along the tracks, and there used to be the most famous, well
6:20
probably infamous pancake place.
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It wasn't IHop.
6:24
It was the reading pan.
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Oh, I'll, I'll call it the reading Pancake place.
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And it had kind of like all these things on the wall, kind of like a TGI Fridays
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or a a Cracker Barrel kind of thing.
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But the pancakes, people would come far and wired for these pancakes.
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And one day the restaurant burned down and that was, it
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Sylvia Lovely: Um, no.
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The memory's all, all the memories is just all you have left.
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Right.
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Nancy May: Right, but these little roadside stands, there's also one
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up in Litchfield that we loved.
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A frank would called Bohemian Pizza, and it had a giant skeleton
6:57
sitting on the top of its roof.
7:01
And Elvis record player covers, well not record player, but I guess they
7:05
were record covers all over the, OR album covers all over the ceilings.
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And that place was, also a hoot and a half.
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So those roadside stands or those roadside ventures really haven't
7:15
totally gone away today, but still they are the mom and pop sometimes less
7:21
frequently heard about or known about.
7:23
Where, like you said, the Coca-Cola cooler was at the door
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and the two gas bumps out front.
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Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, in a Juke box usually too, Uh, a Duke box.
7:33
I'm
7:34
Nancy May: know, there's a place like, yep, there's a place like that up in
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Rhinebeck, New York, quaint little town that we also used to love to frequent
7:40
and a lot of people know in the area.
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But quaint isn't so quaint anymore.
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It is quite the swish place because Chelsea Clinton got married there,
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well, a number of years ago, because I think she's on child number three.
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But still, once the Clintons found it, it became, Ooh, la la roadside stands.
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Sylvia Lovely: I love that.
7:59
And how about, there's a Canadian roadside place that you've told me about.
8:03
What's that one?
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Cheese.
8:04
Something
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Nancy May: Oh, Canadian roadside.
8:06
So the wonderful thing about Roadside Eats, we'll call it kind of the.
8:11
Family tree, food stories, diners drive in and dives, except ours
8:15
are a little better than that.
8:16
And my hair's not so punk and neither is yours.
8:18
But we were on a trip through Canada, actually it was from, I think it was
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Montreal to Quebec or Quebec to Montreal.
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And you know how they have these Apple side roadside stands you do in
8:31
the fall, especially in New England.
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I don't know if they have them down in Kentucky.
8:34
Mm-hmm.
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The peaches, well, peaches, I would imagine down south.
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Not so much up north, but
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Sylvia Lovely: Georgia ones.
8:40
Yeah.
8:40
Nancy May: Mm-hmm.
8:41
Anyway, so we're driving along the highway and there's a couple little signs
8:46
that we passed and it says fromagerie.
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I mean, little kind of things like you might even see for.
8:51
a winery type of place.
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And I told Bob, we had to stop.
8:54
We have to stop.
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And he's like, no, no, no, no Fromagerie.
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It's no place to go.
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It's probably a grocery store.
9:00
So I finally got him at the last sign where it said Fromagerie
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in little teeny tiny green sign.
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We pulled off the road and we found literally this hut that was probably about
9:11
the size of, Maybe a a five hole outhouse.
9:15
So you can get the size, not that it was an outhouse, it
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was clean and it was beautiful.
9:19
And inside was a cheesemonger, a guy who was making cheese from all the cheese
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that he had from his cows in the area.
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And the cheese smelled divine.
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I am a cheese snob, I have to admit, but you don't think of roadside stands as
9:32
Sylvia Lovely: No.
9:33
Nancy May: Anyway, so we're in there and he's speaking French and Bob's trying
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to pick it up because his grandmother was Quebecois and Bob is figuring out
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a little bit about what he's saying and the cheese monger is just thrilled
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hearing about his grandmother's side of the French qua side of French.
9:49
Anyway, and he had just made a fresh cheese.
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Had no name for it.
9:53
Didn't know what to call it, and he asked what my name was.
9:57
Nancy.
9:58
Well, Nancy has a French derivative, so the cheese was named Nancy.
10:03
Do.
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Sylvia Lovely: Oh, you ought to go back.
10:05
Nancy May: I have a stinky cheese named after me, but he also told us that.
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Sylvia Lovely: Well, you make me
10:10
Nancy May: But yeah, but wait a second.
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You also hear these other little things along these roadside stands, what
10:15
you're supposed to eat with the cheese or the apples or everything else.
10:18
He told us not to drink wine, but to get a good, strong beer.
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And we got beer and our cheese a whack of bread, and we sat in our
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Airbnb and had cheese, beer and bread for dinner, and it was delicious.
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Sylvia Lovely: Ah, but no wine, eh.
10:33
Nancy May: No, I, no, no, no.
10:34
no.
10:34
Yes.
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Sylvia Lovely: Well, you made me think of roadsides on a news,
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story during our long ago now.
10:40
ice storms, fella built out of ice in his yard.
10:44
A good humor ice cream truck.
10:47
I mean, it is gorgeous.
10:49
And not only that, but he put his own freezer in there where he put ice cream
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and sold the ice cream for charity.
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Nancy May: During this winter storm.
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Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, I mean, it was big blocks of ice in all
11:02
our yards and they're gone now.
11:03
But anyway, I thought that was a cool roadside idea.
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Nancy May: I love it.
11:08
So it, that was not a drive by, that was a slide by,
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Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, it was so sweet.
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but you know, there was an attempt to bring order.
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Now we've covered this before.
11:16
Duncan Hines, Duncan Hines cake
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mixes and a lot of things traveled.
11:20
The country rating restaurants 'cause he knew there was no other way.
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So he was kind of the precursor of setting up a rating system.
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But, you know, times kind of passed him by, uh, people.
11:32
You know, wanted something new and different.
11:34
So they wanted to know the bathroom would be clean and
11:36
Duncan Hines was only one man.
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Right?
11:38
And that the food would be consistent and that they would never run
11:41
into Mom Evie in South Florida.
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And so what are you gonna do?
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You have something new that's gonna reshape the American roadside.
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So let's talk about the interstate shift.
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From about 1950s to the 1970s and in the 1950s, something
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really, really big changed.
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And it wasn't just the cars, the interstate highway system championed
12:03
under our dear President Eisenhower, began cutting across the country faster,
12:07
roads, straighter lines, fewer stops.
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You had to go and exit, not turning off.
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And what was the most important shift?
12:14
You no longer had to go through a town to get there.
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To get anywhere you could go around it.
12:20
And I remember this very vividly because I worked cities.
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That was my job, was to defend cities against these interstate, taking away
12:29
the little downtowns and all of that.
12:31
So it changed everywhere.
12:32
I didn't, I largely lost because they took over.
12:35
Right.
12:36
And little towns are starting to come back a little bit, but not much.
12:39
But changed everything for Main Street.
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Nancy May: Main Street reminds you of just old quaint towns now today.
12:45
Right.
12:46
And it's sad, but so many of those main streets are going away.
12:50
Ours is trying to revitalize
12:51
itself and it's hard.
12:53
But Brooksville.
12:54
Florida is the typical.
12:56
Well, actually I'm gonna back that up because Brooksville Florida, if you
12:59
don't know it is a jeopardy question.
13:01
So maybe the interstate hasn't totally passed
13:03
us, but the jeopardy question was what is the center of the state of Florida?
13:09
And they said it's Brooksville.
13:11
We might be off by by a mile or so, or a couple miles, but we're pretty darn close.
13:16
Anyway, that's the trivial point for today.
13:18
But suddenly the hardware stores are gone and the courthouse, we have a
13:21
courthouse right in the center of town, which is sort of gobbled up everything.
13:24
Courthouse and lawyers.
13:25
I guess I should be nice because you are a lawyer.
13:28
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, that's all right.
13:29
You can pick on me.
13:31
Nancy May: And remember the corners like you always say, the four corners have,
13:34
every corner has a gas station on it.
13:36
Sylvia Lovely: Mm-hmm.
13:36
Yeah.
13:37
Or a CVS and a Rite Aid or, you
13:39
know, whatever, Walgreens.
13:40
Nancy May: We have an old corner that looks like it had four gas
13:44
stations, 1, 2, 3, 4, whether it was a Texaco or Sunoco or whatever it was.
13:49
But they're gone.
13:50
One is now a butcher and then a pole barn builder, and the other two are just empty.
13:56
But those places have gone away and in many cases, far, far away, they're out
14:00
of sight forever and ever, which is so sad because that's where kids hung out.
14:05
You sat there with a pop.
14:06
Right?
14:07
and, but unfortunately we've been trained to want something different like
14:10
security and something that's not boring.
14:13
Like a Chuck E. Cheese.
14:14
I don't know.
14:15
I've never been to a Chuck E. Cheese.
14:16
Sylvia Lovely: Oh, I have,
14:17
Nancy May: Yeah.
14:18
all those cool places that just a little kind of grungy the kids wrinkle
14:22
their nose up at, well, we actually had one up in Bethel Connecticut,
14:26
which was called the Sycamore Diner.
14:27
We love that place
14:29
Sylvia Lovely: mm-hmm.
14:29
Nancy May: it was a little grungy and some people didn't like it, but sometimes
14:33
I think a little less clean makes you inoculated against the rest of the world.
14:38
Sylvia Lovely: Probably true.
14:39
That's probably true.
14:40
Yeah.
14:40
You know, we, kind of came along with some really cool things and we're
14:44
gonna just pick out two of them.
14:45
I'm sure there are many others.
14:47
I do have to tell a quick story about.
14:49
Small towns and I worked with small town mayors and
14:52
commissioners and council members.
14:54
And I was sitting with one, one day in Paducah, Kentucky, which is
14:57
on the western edge of Kentucky.
15:00
It's beautiful little town.
15:01
And he got something off of the radio that there were thieves, at the Walmart,
15:05
that there was a break in at Walmart.
15:07
And he looked at me, he says, you know.
15:09
Everybody ends up at Walmart.
15:11
Even Thieves.
15:13
Nancy May: that's funny.
15:14
We're gonna take a break at Walmart.
15:16
I think I need a break after Thieves and
15:18
Sylvia Lovely: wa Yeah.
15:19
Nancy May: and we'll be right back.
15:38
So Sylvia, we left off at my favorite place,
15:42
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, of course.
15:44
Nancy May: Walmart.
15:46
I have to say, I, I have a, we have a name that I call Walmart.
15:48
I call it Walt, the name that should not be mentioned.
15:54
I hope I don't get a slanderous note for that one, but in
15:57
any case, it is an adventure.
15:59
Sylvia Lovely: Mm-hmm.
16:00
Nancy May: got some stories about some roadside attractions that had built,
16:03
well, roadside stops, we'll call them.
16:05
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, let's choose two of them, because they're kind of iconic.
16:09
I remember I didn't go very many places when I was a kid, but Bernie
16:14
did, and he talks about some of these places, but Howard Johnson's the bright
16:18
orange roof of Howard Johnson's was kind of a lighthouse for travelers.
16:23
It was founded in 1927 in your backyard, Quincy, Massachusetts.
16:26
Right.
16:27
Nancy May: Yeah.
16:27
Sylvia Lovely: Okay.
16:28
Began as a soda fountain, but along the interstate it became something more.
16:32
You could see that orange roof there.
16:34
There it's we're.
16:35
Okay.
16:36
We know we can get food
16:39
Nancy May: right?
16:39
Sylvia Lovely: and 28 flavors of ice cream.
16:41
Yay.
16:42
Nancy May: They had the best ice cream.
16:43
Oh my God.
16:44
And clam strips.
16:45
Really good.
16:46
Sylvia Lovely: Chef Pepin help plan their menus too.
16:50
What was it clam?
16:51
There was something with clams.
16:52
Nancy May: strips, they were clam
16:54
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
16:55
Nancy May: tartar sauce.
16:56
I remember going to one as kids that my parents would stop on away from, I think
17:01
it was Long Island, to Massachusetts up to see his, my dad's brother.
17:04
And the clams strips were just like my favorite.
17:08
I wouldn't order anything else.
17:10
And of course the ice cream had to be chocolate chip
17:12
and it always had like this.
17:14
Crunchies.
17:15
I mean it was the, it was how the scoop that they used.
17:18
But today I cannot eat a clams strip if my life depended upon it.
17:22
It can only be roadside belly clams.
17:24
Sylvia Lovely: Okay.
17:26
I love that.
17:27
I'm gonna have to pick some of those out in Florida, right?
17:30
Nancy May: Come down to Florida.
17:31
I
17:31
got the best roadside belly clam place you can go to.
17:34
Sylvia Lovely: You are the center of the Florida universe.
17:36
But I think it's pretty cool that, chef Poppen, Jacques Poppen famous of
17:40
course, for hanging out with Julia Child.
17:43
he standardized their recipes.
17:45
I mean, they were already into the flow of consistency, That
17:48
was something that was missing.
17:50
you never knew where you were gonna find a good meal.
17:53
and it was, was pretty cool.
17:54
It
17:54
was pretty cool.
17:55
Nancy May: My, college roommate, her dad owned a Ho Joe's franchise and hotel.
18:00
Up in upstate New York.
18:01
Yes,
18:02
he did.
18:03
He cleaned up with that, apparently did really well, but it was the only place
18:06
that was clean and I guess standardized in the area outside of Syracuse, New York.
18:12
And that's where all the kids would go?
18:13
Sylvia Lovely: You could eat and get a place to lay your head down.
18:16
That was consistent.
18:17
And
18:17
Nancy May: College kids, maybe
18:18
not.
18:18
Sylvia Lovely: it has changed.
18:19
I mean, it's changed, but then there was Stuckey's.
18:21
that's a personal favorite, the teal roof of Stuckey's, and it was founded in 1935.
18:26
I love these origin stories by WS Stuckey Sr.
18:30
With a $35 pecans pecan stand in Eastman, Georgia.
18:35
And then it grew into something uniquely American, and it wasn't just a restaurant.
18:39
It was really an emporium, not much in the restaurant line, but pecan logs.
18:44
Oh my, you know, a pecan log.
18:46
It's got that noot center.
18:48
Nancy May: Now do you say pecan or pecan?
18:50
Sylvia Lovely: Or pecan if you're in the deep south, souvenirs, road
18:54
snacks, clean bathrooms, and it was a pit stop in a, into a small event.
19:00
I love that Noot Center, caramel wrapped around that
19:04
Noot center and, and little Oh,
19:06
Nancy May: I didn't even know what a stuckey's was till later on, I guess in
19:10
my twenties, I'd never experienced one.
19:12
Sylvia Lovely: Oh, and, you know, the rest of the story on the pecans and all
19:16
of that is, oh, by the way, you could get souvenirs, you know, those little.
19:20
Eh,
19:20
Nancy May: Things.
19:20
Yep.
19:20
Roadside chais.
19:21
Sylvia Lovely: key chains, pennants, snow globes, and in Florida, I have to tell
19:25
you, we had buckets of plastic alligators when we were just recently in Florida,
19:30
but a new thing, a gummy alligator that was about a foot long, and each kid
19:36
had to have one, and they were $5 each.
19:39
Do you know?
19:39
We ended up throwing that thing away.
19:41
Even they couldn't eat
19:42
Nancy May: Oh, so it was plastic, it wasn't something you ate.
19:45
Sylvia Lovely: It was something you ate?
19:46
It was a, gummy alligator,
19:48
Nancy May: Like a giant lollipop, but it was a gummy thing.
19:50
Sylvia Lovely: It was gummy,
19:52
Nancy May: Where all the dog hair sticks to it.
19:54
Sylvia Lovely: No, it got thrown out.
19:55
Not, not too long after that.
19:57
But anyway, Mr. Stuckey died and the restaurants virtually disappeared.
20:01
until granddaughter, Stephanie brought it back to life Now you
20:05
can order a log, a pecan log.
20:08
I am going to order Bernie a log.
20:11
I can't wait.
20:12
Nancy May: I am not touching that one with a 10 foot alligator.
20:15
Thank you very much.
20:18
Sylvia Lovely: Oh yeah.
20:20
Nancy May: But, and I find it fascinating that, Stuckey's was going through some
20:24
really hard times and you said it's the granddaughter that's brought it back.
20:28
I think that's wonderful.
20:29
A little roadside nostalgia sticks in the family, and that's important because it's
20:34
also partially what we're all about is family and food and traditions and, and
20:38
maybe even a roadside stand here or there,
20:40
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, her father tried to make it and they ran into, it was
20:44
the 2008 great recession that did them in, and then the son tried to take
20:50
it to a new place and it was like, it lost its shine, you know, sometimes
20:54
when the original owner passes on.
20:56
And then Stephanie has taken it up and she went online, which
21:00
is one, uh, she also retail establishments, but online is really.
21:04
The name of the game today,
21:05
Nancy May: We could have to reach out to her and see if she's got a
21:07
family food store to share with us.
21:09
I think
21:10
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, I bet she does pecan stuff.
21:12
Nancy May: So then we go to the 1970s in the two thousands where the interstate had
21:18
fully reshaped the American landscape.
21:20
Fast food chains exploded, and the juggernauts of other
21:24
episodes that came along.
21:25
But some of the more interesting that happened along the roadside
21:29
stands or the roadsides were.
21:31
The speedways and the speed and efficiency and everything that came fast.
21:35
if it's not fast, you didn't want it, right?
21:37
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, but.
21:38
there was a couple of things that happened.
21:40
A restaurant came along that didn't just serve food, did it?
21:43
It served up memories, and that was Cracker Barrel.
21:46
Founded in 1969 in Lebanon, Tennessee, and I've been dying to
21:51
say this word, so just let me say it.
21:52
It captured the zeitgeist.
21:57
I love that word.
21:58
That is such a cool word.
21:59
And I've just been dying to use it.
22:01
uh, I'm sure the smart people out there already know this,
22:03
but I had to look it up.
22:04
It means kind of the.
22:06
Era that you're in.
22:07
a changed era, kind of everything changed with a zeitgeist It's
22:12
what kind of our, our shtick now.
22:15
Right.
22:15
Okay.
22:16
That's as good as I can do.
22:17
but you
22:17
had rocking
22:18
Nancy May: down, right?
22:19
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
22:20
Rocking chairs on the porch.
22:21
A peg game at the table.
22:23
Biscuits and gravy, and, no, not your favorite, but.
22:25
It is mine and grits and a country store, a boot.
22:28
I mean, my mother loved it.
22:29
My, mother-in-law loved it and it was really pretty neat.
22:34
and so there you have it.
22:35
Nancy May: we actually have I think it's the oldest roadside stop.
22:40
At least in the state of Florida, not too far from us, and we decided to go find it.
22:45
It's this tiny little thing.
22:46
You have to go off the beaten track off Route 50, and it's a tin roof and really
22:53
a hot place for people to stop and see.
22:55
But you see the old nostalgia, the dial up telephone and the the little, the sticky
23:00
things, you know, the long flavored candy sticks that you had along the way that.
23:05
Very interesting.
23:06
Sylvia Lovely: Mm-hmm.
23:07
Nancy May: anyway, that's a nostalgia part that's sort of gone, but
23:10
still there, which is kind of cool.
23:11
But
23:12
biscuits, I know I never had a biscuit that I particularly loved, but south
23:18
of the border in New Jersey, yes.
23:19
You've mentioned it's Cracker Barrel.
23:21
It was mom and pop.
23:21
It's everything about it that just felt so old fashioned and loved, and.
23:26
There's nothing that can say old fashioned and loved and nostalgic in
23:30
the world of ai, I think right now.
23:32
Sylvia Lovely: Mm,
23:32
Nancy May: So speaking on Cracker Barrel, Sylvia, there was a bit of a backlash
23:38
that I found was kind of interesting that apparently, , everybody wanted
23:42
to hate Cracker Barrel for a while because they were changing everything.
23:45
But I found that the AI world was kind of to blame on that, which is
23:51
kind of sad now that our traditions are being mixed and mingled with.
23:55
Things that may not be so real, a researcher found that 45.5 or 44.5% of
24:01
all X tweets or posts, that mentioned the Cracker Barrel were first generated by AI
24:08
bots done within 24 hours of this change.
24:11
So somebody started it somewhere and somebody was upset with
24:15
Cracker Barrel and approximately 49% of the boycott related posts.
24:20
Of the same time also were bot generated.
24:23
So all this hoopla, the 2.2 million cracker barrel related
24:27
posts against Cracker Barrel were AI related posts, which I find
24:32
Sylvia Lovely: a little scary,
24:33
Nancy May: really sad.
24:35
I mean, why?
24:36
Why are we so upset that we have to create a bot to attack the nostalgia
24:41
of something that was just trying to be a little bit more modern in hip?
24:45
I guess maybe it shows that we really do care,
24:47
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
24:48
Uncle Herschel.
24:49
Isn't that what his name was in the rocking chair?
24:51
Wasn't that
24:51
Nancy May: I don't know.
24:52
Is that his
24:52
name?
24:53
Uncle Harshel.
24:53
Sylvia Lovely: I thought so, but maybe I got that wrong.
24:55
But anyway, I gotta tell a quick story.
24:58
The day I attacked somebody in the Cracker Barrel parking lot,
25:01
okay, all right.
25:02
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:03
When my mother was very ill.
25:05
She wanted to go to Cracker Barrel all the time, and so,
25:08
uh, I of course would take her.
25:10
And when she was leaving, it took her forever.
25:13
She was on a walker.
25:14
she was going fast and she was trying to get in the car and she was walking
25:18
out and I had parked right where she could get to the car, and I opened
25:22
the doors, a couple pulled out behind us and started laying on their horn.
25:27
That was it.
25:28
I
25:28
went for, for us to leave and get out of the way.
25:32
Here's this poor woman, and so I went up, they rolled down their window,
25:36
but they looked scared to death because I was ready to kill them,
25:39
and I just yelled at them and it was.
25:42
Nancy May: five foot one of you.
25:43
Sylvia Lovely: yeah, and I just said, you know, I, I hope someday when you're
25:48
ill that people are nicer than you are.
25:51
my mother loved Cracker Barrel, and sometimes it's worth just waiting,
25:56
you know, just waiting for someone to get on a car if they're on a walker.
26:00
it's hard to believe.
26:01
Hard to believe.
26:01
But
26:01
anyway, that was the day
26:02
Nancy May: I, agree.
26:03
My dad loved Cracker Barrel, which I never took him to, but, our aides did
26:07
and the stories of Cracker Barrel were pretty strong and how he enjoyed that,
26:11
Sylvia Lovely: Mm-hmm.
26:12
Nancy May: But now we arrive at today Buc-ees Buc-ees is a hot.
26:16
Have you ever been to a Buc-ees?
26:17
I've never been to a Buc-ees.
26:18
Sylvia Lovely: And I shall never return.
26:20
But
26:20
anyway,
26:21
Nancy May: kinda like me in Walmart.
26:23
Sylvia Lovely: the wa the mega stops.
26:25
it's Buc-ees two places again, two places to talk about.
26:29
One is Buc-ees and yes, there is one right off interstate.
26:32
75 just passed it the other day.
26:34
it's something that our grandparents would never have imagined.
26:37
Up to a hundred, I think 120 gas pumps, walls of jerky, custom coffee bars,
26:42
briskets hard in front of you in bathrooms so clean, they're part of the mythology.
26:46
It's almost theatrical.
26:48
you don't just stop.
26:49
You arrive and it's like, for the kids, it's like Disneyland.
26:52
Nancy May: I can't imagine
26:54
Sylvia Lovely: It's a destination.
26:55
Nancy May: a truck stop as a Disneyland.
26:57
Sylvia Lovely: I'm like, no, I will never go back.
27:00
We did, we made a special trip 'cause I'm about, uh, about 45 minutes from here
27:05
when it made a special trip to go there.
27:07
And it was like an onslaught against your senses.
27:10
Sorry.
27:10
Buc-ees I'm sure with that little beaver, you're very nice people.
27:13
'cause the beaver is a friendly little guy.
27:15
But then now we have Wawa and it's close by.
27:19
Have you been to a Wawa?
27:20
Nancy May: Are everywhere.
27:20
They're kinda like the seven elevens of the South.
27:22
Sylvia Lovely: Mm-hmm.
27:23
They're similar to Buc-ees.
27:25
Um, and you say here, you love
27:26
their coffee.
27:28
You've been in a Wawa.
27:29
Oh,
27:30
Nancy May: very good.
27:31
Almost as good as Dunking Donuts, but I won't go there 'cause I'm
27:34
from the Northeast and we love our Dunking Donuts over our
27:37
Sylvia Lovely: I do love Dunking Donuts.
27:40
I do
27:40
Nancy May: but Wawa was named for a Canadian goose
27:44
Sylvia Lovely: Mm-hmm.
27:45
Nancy May: roots.
27:46
Sylvia Lovely: I know.
27:46
I can't
27:47
Nancy May: Don't tell me how that happened.
27:48
Sylvia Lovely: I don't know.
27:49
Nancy May: know.
27:50
Sylvia Lovely: I know it was a little bit too much information
27:53
to delve into for this.
27:54
But anyway, yeah, that began as a
27:56
Nancy May: I have, I have, I have, one little story.
27:58
This is a side sidebar story.
28:00
I was visiting my sister out in the Oklahoma area in Wagner,
28:04
outside of Tulsa, and they don't have seven elevens out there.
28:07
At least we didn't see one.
28:08
But you know what they have?
28:10
Sylvia Lovely: What
28:10
Nancy May: They have something called a Kum & Go.
28:13
Sylvia Lovely: they Kum & Go.
28:14
Is that like in and out
28:15
Nancy May: went, come and go.
28:16
I'm driving along thinking Kum & Go.
28:18
This doesn't sound right.
28:20
This is like, this is not Bible belt
28:23
Sylvia Lovely: Mm.
28:23
Nancy May: territory.
28:25
I laughed every time I saw the Kum & Go.
28:27
I mentioned it and I started to laugh hysterically with my sister in the car.
28:30
And that Christmas, what did I get for Christmas?
28:33
Gift two T-shirts.
28:34
One for me and one for Bob.
28:36
Kum & Go.
28:38
Sylvia Lovely: Oh, that is hilarious.
28:40
I love that.
28:42
but you know, since you obviously like it came out of a dairy farm and it was one of
28:48
the dairy farm was very meticulous about.
28:53
Children getting good milk.
28:55
And so that was like, you know, so it's sort of a, a good feeling kind of story,
29:00
about the dairy that turned into Wawa.
29:02
I love the origin
29:03
Nancy May: Kind of like the Stew Leonards of the north, which is
29:06
only a couple of places, but still,
29:08
Sylvia Lovely: Now, you know, here's something going on out there though,
29:10
and we'll just have to watch.
29:12
Are the mascots, we've talked about that and we've talked about branding.
29:15
We've talked about Uncle Herschel and we talked about people
29:19
that kind of became the face.
29:21
But these little lovable animals kind of remind you of, mascots like.
29:27
Sports teams, they're here to love you and you love them back 'cause they have
29:31
big old giant grins on their faces.
29:33
And so I thought that was kind of interesting, that phenomenon.
29:36
Nancy May: We have the Florida Gators and we also have, the Pirates, so
29:40
Sylvia Lovely: Mm-hmm.
29:40
We had Wildcats, but.
29:42
Nancy May: we have Buccaneers.
29:43
I guess you gotta love a smiling pirate, but
29:45
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
29:46
Mm. Anyway, Buc-ees is the beaver, and then you have the Canadian goose.
29:50
So there you have it.
29:51
Uh, but they, out of the consistency of Howard Johnson's and the retail flare
29:55
of a stuckey's, a comfort nostalgia of Cracker Barrel and Scale, that
30:00
would've stunned early road travelers.
30:03
I don't know.
30:03
Are they authentic or do we care?
30:05
I mean, you get in there, you get what you want, and you leave,
30:08
Nancy May: You
30:08
don't linger.
30:09
Which is kind of sad, but I think it's time to do a little bit of a nostalgic
30:13
or family tree food stories, revolt and, well, not revolting, but revolt
30:18
Sylvia Lovely: Mm-hmm.
30:18
Yeah.
30:19
Nancy May: and decide that we should all frequent the side rose
30:23
stands, the little outta the way
30:24
places, the diners, the.
30:26
Cute and even delicious, or maybe not so delicious coffee shops that just make
30:32
our lives a little bit more interesting where we have to slow down and just
30:36
take in the smell of a good apple pie along the way, or maybe a pecan pie
30:42
Sylvia Lovely: a pecan pie.
30:44
Yeah.
30:44
Yeah.
30:44
and just kind of create a, a canvas on which a real story is written.
30:48
So yeah, I
30:49
Nancy May: The purpose for stopping
30:51
and wanting to stop as opposed to just a flash by drive by, because
30:55
every meal has a story and every story is a feast, and that's our motto.
30:58
And roadside, or off the road or off the beaten path, or shunpikeing as
31:03
we call it, in many cases, makes life a little bit more interesting.
31:07
It's not so much the food, but it's the destination.
31:11
Or the journey even better, and getting there that makes every
31:14
day just a little bit better.
31:16
Sylvia Lovely: I love it.
31:17
I love it.
31:18
Let's go find a place.
31:19
Nancy May: Let's go find a place.
31:20
So if you like the show, or better yet, if you have a roadside attraction that's
31:26
just a little bit more delicious than the next, please share it with us at
31:30
Go to podcast Family Tree Food stories.
31:32
Share a link to your roadside attraction or a restaurant or
31:36
diner or someplace that you like.
31:38
Actually, I saw.
31:40
I saw a diner that was listed in a roadside attraction called The Damn Diner.
31:45
So if you are somewhere in central Florida and find The Damn Diner, please
31:50
take a photo of that and share it with us, because we'd love to see it.
31:55
Sylvia Lovely: Well, and I've lived in central Florida and there are
31:58
some contrarians who did run diners, including Bernie's grandmother.
32:02
So I mean, there are places to visit and then
32:06
there are places that maybe not
32:09
Nancy May: share your story with us at Podcast Family Tree Food and Story,
32:12
because like we said every meal has a story and every story is a feast.
32:16
We'll see you soon and we'll hear you soon.
32:18
Take care and
32:19
happy eating.
32:20
Bye-bye.
32:20
Sylvia Lovely: Goodbye.