Demico Quick Serve

Why is fast food so idealized? When you think of tasty treats, fast food is usually one of the first things that pop up in your head. When I was younger, my mom stuffed me full of fresh produce and homemade meals. It was rare that I ever ate processed foods or fast foods because we owned a farm and the fresh produce was cheaper than the processed “American Yankee” food. You would think that this is a great opportunity to eat fresh, unprocessed foods for almost every meal -- which it is-- but being eight at the time, I didn’t think so. I lived for the rare trips to the store where I would be able to buy “Yankee” food and eat like an American; I was going to buy all the bologna, cans of Vienna sausages, corned beef, and corn my mother would allow.

Of all the times I had been overjoyed from purchasing and consuming some imported, processed food, my most valued memory of fast food as a child was of my trips to Demico Quick Serve. The trip was like a red carpet event; everyone wore their “going-out” clothes and got “dolled up” to go “out-front”, twenty minutes away from my house and eat at the only fast food joint in Linden. It was like being in America. Demico Quick Serve, unlike everywhere else, was air conditioned and you weren’t drenched in sweat and engulfed in the sticky humidity with everyone else’s sweaty smells. No, Demico was so cool it became cold very quickly seeing as I was not accustomed to the cool air. It had metal spinning chairs with blue bars for the backrest and was ice cold to the touch. Sitting and twirling around while I waited for my food was the best past time ever, especially because I worked vigorously to twist and twirl but I never became sweaty because there was AC. I felt like I was a “big-shot”.

At Demico I would always order a “cone-cup” (ice cream cone) with the beige cake cone because there was not waffle cone. I waited eagerly in my capris, flip flops, and tank top for my mother or whoever was ordering to deliver my treat. It was a fatiguing wait. When I finally receive my cone, it was like the heavens opened up. I lick to my heart’s delight; molding the ice cream into different humps, lumps and spikes. The infamous spike my sister and I did was the pointy ice cream tip that we made by licking the ice cream to a point with our lips formed in an “O” shape. Our newly designed cones were up in the air as we became the Statue of Liberty and our cones were our torches. After licking away the pointy top, the ice cream went from a semi-circle hump to a leveled surface with the rim of the cone. The fun was just beginning. The first bite of the ice cream with the wafer of the cone was amazing. After enjoying the several bites of ice cream and wafer, I ate my way to the tube base of the cone that I carefully bit to form what I thought was a cup of milk. My sister and I would then pretend to sip from the miniature glasses of milk. It was pure fun and I proceed to shove the rest of the cone into my mouth. After a bunch of loud “crunch-crunches”, the delectable cone was gone and so was a bit of my joy.

The time spent in this “American” place had me shivering as if I had Parkinson’s; it was very cold seeing as I had finished my ice cream. When everyone had finished scarfing down the tasty but heart clogging foods, we left. The first step out of the air conditioning into the hot air of the equator was an unexplainably comforting feeling. It felt as good as how the ice cream tasted. I thought to myself, “Can’t wait until we meet again ice cream cone”, and it was at an early age that the American fast food lifestyle had entered my life and planted its deceiving seeds. I was manipulated as a child to love the taste of sugar and fat and going to eat out at a fast food place instead of drinking cherry, guava juice or fresh cow milk.

Now that I am older, I long to have to ability to eat fresh foods every day, and the thought of eating fast food has become somewhat repulsive. It seems as though my choices and influences regarding food has changed; I wanted and loved eating and buying unhealthy, expensive processed and imported foods when I had all the access to fresh and exotic foods and now I wish I could get all of those fresh produce at their original prices that were cheaper than the fast food. Fast food definitely has the correct name; it is fast in changing your tastes and mind set as well as sneaking up on you and your lifestyle no matter where you are.