To celebrate the sale of our home on Thursday, we stopped at Golden Corral for dinner. Actually, I think it was more that we have so many boxes in the kitchen, it is nearly impossible to get a meal done without moving 10 boxes. That, and after the news of the van repair bill, we just could not take going home to the storage area (kitchen) and taking 2 hours to cook, eat, and cleanup.
We arrived at the restaurant and it was 90% full. I had the impression that we were very out of place there. Normally, the people in This restaurant are older. I would even venture to say that 30% were usually 80 years old or older. But not this time. I would venture to say that the average age of the adults there today were 34 to 36. Most everyone there had two kids. This still is not a remarkable fact, considering the restaurant and it's location. I would say that is where the normalcy stops.
This crowd was scary. I would estimate that 80 to 90 percent of the people were overweight. And we are not talking about some people who are 20 pounds overweight. I am talking about people who if measured around the waist, would be larger than their height. We are talking people who would make Richard Simmons cringe. These folks were huge. There was this feeding frenzy in progress which made me realize why many third world countries hate us and think we are the great Satan. The whole scene was revolting. It was big fat husbands, with their enormously fat wives, and they brought along their screaming, undisciplined, moronic, plump kids.
I followed around one woman who had her grotesquely fat daughter trailing behind. The woman had two heaping plates in her left hand, and one more in her right. All the time, she was telling her daughter, "Just follow me and will go back for some steak". OK, at this point I was really getting sick to my stomach at what has happening around me. I had my one plate with a big spoonful of green beans, a small piece of ham, half a spoon of mashed potatoes with a tablespoon of gravy, and a little bit of Cole slaw. I looked over at one woman's table as I was going back to my table. She had wasted more on her plate she left on the table than I took for my main trip.
The one piece I have to relate was the family of 5 who had to have a combined weight of 1100 pounds. Each of them waddled back and forth to the various steam tables over and over. I had to quit counting the males plates because after 5, the "helper" or what ever they are called there kept walking by ever few minutes and picking up the scraps and such. I couldn't really tell if he was the husband. His hand was so fat, I doubt he could have put on a wedding band if he tried. Anyway, the big point of this was before we were leaving, the 10 year old son had another desert plate. It consisted of three pieces of cake, a bowl of ice cream with sprinkles, two big sugar cookies and what looked like about a cup and a half of gummy bears. That is when we had to leave.
The last one, with the 10 year old that probably weighed 160 was the last straw. IMHO, that is child abuse. Anyone that lets their child get to be something that would show up on the front of the National Enquirer, should have their children taken away because they have no business being a parent.
Sure, this was not an episode of Jerry Springer, but all it would have taken was a stage and a couple of flying chairs.
I can't even continue. The thought of it makes me ill. I will leave it at that. Just remember, if someone asks you if you want to go to the "All you can eat buffet", remember that it is not a challenge, just the name.
