musings a go go

Once upon a time, back in 1982, I was seven, and went on vacation to central Florida with my parents, brother, sister, and grandmother. We left from Crossett Arkansas to stay in the Tampa area with my aunt and uncle. Coming from a rural community--west of West Crossett with hardly any restaurant chains, I was fascinated by everything--McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Jack In The Box, Holiday Inn, Howard Johnson's--I loved seeing new things and I loved the chains and the signs and anything affiliated with them. Anyway, on this particular trip, we stopped for breakfast at a restaurant called Sambo's. Then for lunch we stopped at a restaurant called Sambo's. And of course, for dinner, we ate at a restaurant called Sambo's. This was a Denny's/Shoney's type of restaurant, and after they went out of business in 1983, they turned into Denny's. Guess why they went out of business? Could it be something to do with racism? Yes, you guessed it. Poor management of a sprawling chain (where employees earned shares of Sambo's restaurants and eventually got their own stores without having the financial means to support it) and public outcrys and boycotts for the name. I am showing a picture of what they used to look like, inside and out, along with the old Sambo's building in my town that has now turned into a blood bank.