I was on my way back home from college for the summer between my freshman and sophomore year at Iowa State. My mom and sister had picked me, and we had resolved ourselves to the fact that we would be on the road for a good six hours. It was soon lunch time, so we stopped at a roadside diner. I believe it was called Country Kitchen, but I may have have been mistaken since it was a long time ago. Anyway, the diner was moderately busy, a small lunch rush, I'd say. But, we were seated right away and shortly thereafter our waiter, a young guy, appeared and took our drink orders. We were starving by this time; conversation was minimal. Everything in the place looked a little weary, worn, and frayed. The waiter returned shortly with our sodas and ice teas, then took our food orders. He walked off through the swinging kitchen doors. We waited, waited, and waited. The clock ticked by. Our stomachs were growling. Half and hour passed. We were just starting to really grumble when the waiter reappeard with one plate of food. "I'm sorry it's taking so long," he said. "I thought I'd give you a complimentary appetizer to make up for it." We gobbled up the potato skins, but this only wet our appetites. We were now salivating. The small clock above the swinging doors counted off another twenty. "Let's just leave," my sister said. As if on cue, the waiter reappeared. "I'm so sorry it's taking so long," he said worridly. "What's the hold up?" my mom asked." Instead of answering her question, he said, "You're food will be here in ten minutes, I promise." Again, he vanished into the kitchen. Ten minutes ticked by, then twenty. No one was eating in the restaurant, but the strange thing was that no one looked annoyed - at all. Everyone was just talking and sipping their colas. "Are we in a Twilight Zone episode?" I said. We looked at each other and realized that were were suddenly a bit creeped out. After all, if we weren't in a Twilight Zone or characters in a Waiting for Godot-esque play, what were we doing here? And more importantly, what was going on in the kitchen? We didn't want to wait to find out. We left quickly, but not before we realized that we'd wasted a good portion of our day at this mealy diner. McDonalds does occasionally serve a practical purpose.
