October 16, 2010 - Special Sauce
In 1967 McDonald's opened its first restaurant outside of the United States in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, Canada.
I was eleven years old and painfully aware of what I had been missing until then from the years of McDonald's commercials
I'd seen on U.S. TV stations. It wasn't long before I made the pilgrimage to Richmond for my first McDonald's hamburger.
Years later, when my parents finally bought a car, there was nothing better than driving to a McDonald's, picking up our
food at the drive-through window, and finding a spot in the parking lot where the whole family would sit in the car eating
burgers, fries, and apple pies, and drinking cokes from a straw.
I loved the food at McDonald's, especially their Big Mac, and it became a part of my regular routine to eat lunch or
breakfast at a McDonald's at least once or twice a week. I continued this routine even after moving to New York in the
early eighties. No matter where I lived or worked in the city there was always a McDonald's within easy walking distance.
In the late 90's my office was located on East 46th Street between First and Second Avenue and "my" McDonald's was located
on the corner of East 39th Street and Second Avenue. I liked this location because it had dining areas on the main floor
and in the basement, so I was usually able to get my own table and enjoy a relaxing lunch reading the newspaper.
One day I bought my usual Big Mac, large fries and a small coke and, seeing that the upstairs seating area was full, headed
downstairs to have lunch in the basement. The basement was also quite full but I managed to find an empty table. Just as I
sat down and was starting to settle in I was struck by a horrible smell. I quickly checked out the people sitting around me
to see if I could identify the source, but everyone looked "clean". The stench became nauseating and I soon realized it was
the smell of raw sewage when I saw plumbers through the open door of the men's room at the other end of the restaurant
struggling to fix a major "problem".
It was sickening and I had to get out. I grabbed everything, and on my way upstairs looked back and was shocked to see that no
one else in the basement seemed to notice the smell. They blissfully continued eating their hamburgers and fries and reading
their newspapers... in that sewer.
I probably should have complained and demanded my money back but instead I threw everything in the garbage and went back to the
office.
Since that day I have stopped eating at McDonald's and other fast-food "restaurants". The smell of "Special Sauces" mixed with
that of grilling hamburgers and deep-frying french fries, which used to whet my appetite, is now forever linked to the smell of
raw sewage.
It's a shame to lose something you once enjoyed, but I know I'm now much healthier because of that change in diet made
many years ago.
