Welcome to the back porch and the weather has been fantastic mid 70s to low 80s just perfect. I knew before we even got here to the porch that the ponder was going to be about the latest controversy that’s  engulfed the nation so to speak and that being Cracker Barrel. 

Founding: 1969–1980

Cracker Barrel was founded in 1969 by Dan Evins, a representative for Shell Oil, who developed the restaurant and gift store concept initially as a plan to improve gasoline sales. Designed to resemble the traditional country store that he remembered from his childhood, with a name chosen to give it a Southern country theme, Cracker Barrel was intended to attract the interest of highway travelers. Multiple origin stories of the name exists. From the 1760s onward, Scots-Irish settlers of the southern backcountry were called crackers,  Barrels of soda crackers could be found for sale in small-town stores across the American South in the early 1900s; people would stand around the barrels chatting and catching up, similar in purpose to contemporary office water coolers. Wikipedia

The Golden Arches are the globally recognized logo and a former architectural feature of the McDonald’s fast-food chain, originally conceived in the 1950s as a part of the restaurant’s drive-in design before becoming the brand’s primary symbol. Created by architect Stanley Clark Meston, the arches were intended to make the buildings stand out. While they have since been replaced by a single arch in the current logo, their cultural impact and recognition remain significant.

 

Waffle House, Inc. is an American restaurant chain with over 2,000 locations in 25 states in the United States. The bulk of the locations are in the Midwest and the South, where the chain is a regional cultural icon. The menu consists mainly of Southern breakfast food.

Source: Wikipedia

                                                              

 

These iconic brands above and I have passed over many more, have over the years become a part , I might add a large part, of the memories of many people. Now let’s take a moment and ponder about this. This hadn’t been on the front burner too long before right away we see politics and other things become involved. Actually, truth is the three that I have listed  have this in common. They have in their own right become American cultural icons. There’s a much bigger issue here and the group on the porch finally worked their way around to it. I’ve told you many times before, but I’ll repeat it again, I am 82 years old, and I grew up through my youth into my adulthood and into my older years with these places as my happy places. I hope that I can express this correctly without offending anybody. When we speak of cultural what I’m thinking about is that these three that I’ve mentioned fit the need of about 80% of the population. Waffle House is a working man’s place to eat. Simple meals of most any thing you want, anytime you want them, well prepared, fast service and nice people. McDonald’s my goodness, a busy mom’s dream. At one time it was Inexpensive, ain’t now but still a place where the children are welcomed and an atmosphere that you can kinda trust. Of course there’s Cracker Barrel. I’ve always felt like the Cracker Barrel was kind of the uptown place for us, country boys, rednecks, and people who favored overalls most of the time but it’s more than that…It’s cooking like you mama used to do…the kind that her mother taught her how to cook. It’s the kinda food served around the family table. 

So let’s not drag this out. As we get older things change…not always for the best. Most of us here on the porch agree that the big hurt for us is seeing our world slowly go away, one memory at a time. Cracker Barrel stock has been sliding for some time and here is the reason…Quality, Service and Value matter…in short they changed everything instead of the root problem. The quality of the food and service had gone south…and I don’t mean geographically. Value is not a negational thing. People like to feel like they got what they paid for. No, don’t blame WOKE, the value of an honest days work for a honest days wage is gone…and that ain’t a Logo thing.  

PONDER THAT!

Kurt