Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for February 21, 2014

I believe it was you who insisted on bringing the kids to P.J. Piehole’s, Madeline. That, and, hey, Alice’s burger doesn’t have a little plastic sword!

This waitress just lost her tip. Imagine, no plastic sword!!

Petey’s been having a meltdown since the word go.

Crisis? What Crisis?

Now see, that’s why those hamburgers have the plastic swords or party toothpicks. It’s the only thing holding them together.

It started out a troubled day, and now the end is nowhere in site.

In the old days, the waitress would be accommodating, and go to the bar and get a plastic Martini sword, to keep the customer satisfied. And that was back when they made even less per hour than these days, with smaller tips since the prices were lower. Today, it is just hurry up and eat, we need your table for the next customer.

Once when our own version-of-Petey-son was about 7, he had a meltdown in a resturant because his mashed potatoes were under his plain broiled chicken. The kitchen probably thought it looked attractive. Hah! Did anyone else have to wait at McDonalds while they fixed a plain hamburger with nothing on it, just meat and bread? Glad to say his own kids eat everything with no complaints!

Deja vu from 50 years ago….. when I was Petey’s age, my Mom’s policy was “it’s OK to whine and complain, but only one kid at time — take turns.” We used to hurry each up to get done so the next one could whine.