IN N OUT BURGER

In N Out Burger (<-----Click to see picture)

Hungrily, you drive down the busy highway back from a game. When you see the upside down, yellow swoosh logo with the bold red letters and the criss-crossed palm trees of In-n-Out, you quickly swerve onto the off-ramp almost rear-ending the forest green Honda in front of you and pull into the eleven-car drive-thru. With three easy turns, you’re at the black, white and red square menu board deciding what to order that will satisfy your insatiable appetite for fattening foods. Once you have ordered, the rectangular red speaker box replies with the amount due for your impending feast. As you turn the last corner, you notice the green and white “Recycle” sticker on the monstrous hummer in front of you. Slowly rolling up to the first window, you see a young teenage boy wearing a cotton white button up t-shirt with the In n Out logo on it, an In n Out bright red hat above his enthusiastic face, and an apron around his waist, repeating your order with a joyful smile. His nametag reads “Tommy”, and you pay him your dues for your bag of joy.

After receiving your receipt, you proceed to the second window, watching your order be carefully crafted through the large transparent windows. You watch as one employee puts the freshly peeled potatoes being chopped with the swiftness and skill of a craftsman into strips and tossed into the hot, greasy fryer, and another delicately slices the tomatoes into the same width circles as if creating a masterpiece

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of culinary arts, while a third employee flips fifteen juicy burgers to perfection. On the side, you see the fry cook gently lay the buns on the grill to turn crisp and crunchy. You can smell the intoxicating aroma as it seeps through your windows driving you to the point of maddening starvation. Finally arriving at the second window, the excitement is at a level ten out of five.

Peering in, past the kitchen full of busy workers, all with smiles on their faces, and into the inside of the restaurant where people, all different ages and sizes, either waiting anxiously for their meal or devouring it. Through the window you observe three lines equally like one another, and many small tables occupied by customers equally as hungry, who all went in and out at the same time, with the same expressions upon the same faces, to eat the same meal, and to whom every bite was as delicious as the last and the next.

One thing in particular pops out like the nose of Cyrano de Bergerac when you gaze through the open window; an average-weight mother and her two adolescent children were eating their meals with enormous excitement. You notice that the mother is enjoying her protein-style burger, lettuce instead of a bun, with a sort of false delight; with that meal, it was as if she was trying to trick herself into thinking that she wasn’t submitting to feeding herself and her family fast food. To contribute, both of her sons were drinking water instead of a soda as if drinking water substitutes as a trade off for eating a fatty burger and fries.

In search of something to postpone the anticipation, you turn on the radio. Tapping your foot, twirling your change, humming to the radio--- these activities

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allowing you to wait the extra thirty seconds before exploding of excruciating excitement.

“Would you like ketchup with that?” the employee will ask you politely as she respectfully hands you your bag of tremendous pleasure. Overwhelmed with hunger, you snatch up the bag and quickly reply “no thank you.” You pull out. You turn around. You back up. As you sit in the car, parked in the wide lot, you whip out the burger with excessive exhilaration and intake the mesmerizing fragrance with much joy. You immediately unwrap the burger and take the first bite and the second and the third and the fourth until you finish completely. As you devour your mouth-watering sandwich, you notice the vast size of the parking lot in comparison to the Lucky supermarket down the street; they are nearly equal in size. Once completed, you have the feeling of utmost satisfaction.

In with a growling stomach and out with an over-stuffed belly; in with five dollars, and out with a greasy burger—a stack of meat and cheese, lettuce and tomato, onions and special sauce—and a steaming hot side of fries. The place was a culture within a culture; fast food culture ultimately reflects the American culture. With its over-weight families eating there three times a week and each customer’s need for immediate gratification, unfortunately provides the perfect example for modern day society. The food is greasy and the people are even greasier; the service is friendly and the consumers are hungry; quality is served with a smile and quantity is expressed by the eleven-car drive-thru; the people of Petaluma needed it as much as the city of Petaluma needed it. Where there are burgers, there will be people, and within a society obsessed with the concept of time, there couldn’t have been a better invention than fast food.

-Devin B. (ZERO)