Thoughts on the Season

I would like to take a moment to tell everyone I know and love how much they mean to me. I have been reminded many times these past few weeks how much more alive I feel when I am around family. We have a lot of strong personalities in our home, and that leads to a lot of stress. But on balance, I prefer headstrong to docile. It makes life both more interesting and more complicated.

On another note, I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas.

I see President Bush is in the giving spirit, authorizing a loan package for the US auto industry. Here is a section of the country that hasn't done a thing on his behalf in 8 years. This industry needs to go through a major resructure. I fear all we have done is postponed the problem. I am also sure that many other businesses, including domestic airlines, are wondering where the government was during all of their turmoil. You can't pay 60% more for your labor and be competitive building anything. It is even worse when the government forces you to build things nobody wants to buy.

TOP 5 BURGERS THAT YOU PROBABLY NEVER TRIED, AND LIKELY NEVER WILL.

5 - John Henrie's Dad's grilled hamburger, circa 1978. I had a friend in high school by the name of John Henrie. He was the president of our seminary, and I was one of his officers. John invited a whole bunch of us over for a barbeque near the time of our graduation. I have never tasted anything quite like it. He had a way of making the outside of the burger really crunchy, and the inside moist and juicy. I kept trying to get him to tell me how he did it, but he only smiled. I saw him putting some sauce on it before and while he grilled them. What a great memory, And a shout out to John Henrie, who I haven't seen in at least a million years.

4 - Village Grill Cheeseburger - In Foothill Village on 1300 South and Foothill Blvd., there used to be a restaurant called the Village Grill. It stood where the Zion's Bank stands today. Now, as a young man, I sort of grew up in Foothill Village. In fact, that is a great topic for a future Top 5 lists - Top 5 stores of all time in Foothill Village - or perhaps - Top 5 stupid things I did as a young brat at Foothill Village - some other time maybe. Anyway, we would horse around all over Foothill Village, and one of the things we would do sometimes was get a cheeseburger at the Village Grill. Typical diner cheeseburger, served on a toasted, buttered bun, with lettuce, tomato and onions. I don't remember how much, but I do remember that they had those old juke boxes on each individual table. The perficet thing for desert was a Texas sized glazed doughnut at Albertson's for a dime, nineteen cents if you wanted frosting.

3 - Fred's Burger Challet - The King Burger - There is this little restaurant over by where I live, maybe you have heard of it. It is called "Big Apple". When I was a young boy, it was called "Fred's Burger Challet". I would sleep over with my grandparents on Friday or Saturday nights when I was very young, and the next day my Grammy would take me either bowling or minature golfing, depending on the weather. After the sports, we would go to Fred's Burger Chalet for a King Burger. It was laid out a bit like Big Apple is now. The Grill was back where the pizza oven is, and you would go to this counter that is about where the counter is now, only it ran the width of the store, the bagthroom must have been in a different place, and you would order you food and walk down the counter, similar to Cafe Rio. I would always get a King Burger and a small salad. The remarkable thing I remember about the salad was that it always had 1 large really cold slice of beet on top. I still love a cold sliced beet. When you got your food, you would then go down a sort of condiment bar that ran in front of the counter parallel to it. I would always lather my salad and my King Burger in 1000 Island dressing, and to this day, I love 1000 island on a cheese burger. The sad truth is many restaurant's don't even offer 1000 island anymore. What is the world coming to.

2 - Cheeseburger and Fries - Ben's Cafe. In the Continental Bank Building at the corner of 2nd South and Main, on the fourth floor, was a cafe about the size of a postage stamp called "Ben's Cafe". Ben was a chinese guy who ran the place with his wife. It was typical diner food with an emphasis on chinese specialties, but in 1981 you could get a cheese burger just like the one at the Village Grill described above with a plate full of fries for 95 cents. It was absolutely fabulous. Whenever I went in there he was freindly and accomadating. He stored a vaccum cleaner in the oven. Steve Grooms and I went there often, and Ben would always say "How we doin' boys!" and this same old fart would come in and order a glass of iced tea and read the Salt Lake Tribune. Ben moved down Main to the Judge Building when the Continental Bank Building became the Hotel Monaco. He recently retired.

1 - Deeburger. I know. If you are old enough to remember the Dee Burger, you can't believe I have put this here. You younger folks know of Dee's family restaurants. Well back in the day, there were many drive inns in the valley known as Dee's family drive inns. They were locally owned and were as plentiful as McDonalds, and probably the two most popular drive inns in town. Any way, the standard Dee Burger was a small burger with chopped onions and pickle. Kind of similar to a Wendy's Double Stack today. You could get them 3 for a buck, 4 for a buck on Friday's. When I was really little, Friday was lucky Friday, and you could have the Dee Burger for 15 cents. They had other sandwiches like the Super Dee and the Triple Decker, and they had the best Orange soda you could ever imagine. Most of the places had no interrior, so you would stand outside when you orderd, kind of like some of the places up at Bear Lake. They had large heating lamps above your head as you waited for your food. One of my earliest memories is trying to eat fries with ketchup. The ketchup would come in one of those small paper cups, about like a paper sacrament cup, and if my fry was too small, I would invariably drop it in there, and being a fastidious tyke, I would not want to get my fingers messy digging it out, so my father would take out his pocket knife (I still remember exactly what that thing looked like) and dig my fry out of my ketchup for me. We probably repeated this ritual 5 times per bag of fries. Dee's was famous for it's "Let's all go to Dee's" jingle, and the incredibly ridiculous "Disco down to Dee's" commercials as well as the Dee Burger Clown.

Let's go to Dee's
Let's all go to Dee's
That's what Daddy says
And the family all agrees

When I was first married I would ride the bus from the U to my job downtown, it let me off in front of the Dee's on 2nd South and State. I would get 3 or 4 for a dollar, eat them on the one block walk to work, and smell of onions for the next several hours.

You can't make this stuff up.