Drive-thru madness continued

So as I wrote about the chaotic drive-thru process last week, my mind began to think of all the other drive-thru instances that can cause brain damage for a busy mom. Having to generalize these situations into one story just isn't possible. Also, ranting about the subject brought back some vivid memories of other drive-thru occasions that make me chuckle now but were NOT funny at the time. Apparently this drive-thru thing isn't anything new and not particular just to me.

For instance, when describing the specific orders that are yelled out by each individual child from the back of the truck, reminded me of a few times growing up that obviously were madness for my folks as well. I can remember most Sundays after church, my mom would ask me and my little brothers what restaurant we wanted to drive-thru, and almost inevitably, we'd all disagree. But the Sunday I remember most, is when she flipped her lid and had enough of our disagreements, and declared, "Fine then! We are going home and having sandwiches!"

And we did. It was not a threat or a trick to get us to agree. That was that and we had sandwiches.

Then there was the time my stepdad lost his mind in the drive-thru. I was a little older and my mom had remarried, becoming a blended family with six kids all together. My stepdad treated us all with a weeklong trip to the mountains and on that last day I think his patience had run dry. While in the fast food drive-thru lane, he politely asked all of us troops in the back of the van what we wanted. If I think three kids is bad, I'm sure hearing orders from six kids was way worse.

Anyways, we all began to yell out, at the same time, what we wanted down to the very specific detail. And I like I mentioned last week, changing our minds a few times now and then. I remember him looking in the back, attempting to retain these orders, outlining it all in his mind so he could successfully repeat them to the order taker. However, by the time he reached the ordering box, the chaos of kids yelling their orders and changing their minds must have tripped his trigger.

When the voice box asked, "May I take your order?" My stepdad, in his irritancy, immediately deleted all the previous discussions with us, and firmly ordered, "I'll have 8 cheeseburgers, 8 fries and 8 cokes!"

Well, you'd a thought our dog had died. Us kids were shocked and began whining and bawling, "I don't like cheeseburgers!" or "I wanted nuggets!" and so on and so on.

Arms were folded and faces were scowled. Our unified bratty attitude caused my stepdad's irritation to intensify. Once he was handed the food, he literally began chucking the cheeseburgers to the back of the van. If you wanted to eat, you better catch one of those paper wrapped burgers flying past your head.

Us kids were all mad, but we ate 'em. I was certainly old enough by that time to not act that childish, but I still remember my anger as I scraped off all the mustard and onions. Looking back, I don't blame him at all. I'd have done the same thing.

The drive -thru can change a person, I tell ya. I can be calm and happy when I approach the drive-thru, but turn into Medusa by the time I leave.

What I realized though, by reflecting on this craziness, that it's a never ending issue and at some point in every parent's life, they will experience the insanity, known as drive-thru madness.