Before I begin my story, if you have NEVER been to McDonald’s before, raise your hand…..EXACTLY!

Okay, so I’m with grandbaby girl in my car and we’re heading to Dance rehearsal.  Both of us were a little hungry and since we had some time to spare (i.e, we were not going to be late), I decided to stop at the McDonalds Drive Thru to grab a quick bite to eat.  Now, if you read that last sentence very carefully, you will notice that I mentioned some key words here which are of utmost importance.  Say them with me… Drive Thru, Grab, and Quick.  Before I go any further, the particular McDonalds I’m talking about isn’t the point.  I believe at some time or another, they all forget the 90 sec drive thru rule.  But is it just me, or does the word “Drive Thru” mean drive through?  Let’s look up the definition, shall we.

ACCORDING TO WIKIPEDIA
Drive-through, or drive-thru, is a type of service provided by a business that allows customers to purchase products without leaving their cars. Orders are generally placed using a microphone and picked up in person at the window.  A drive-through is different from a drive-in in several ways— the cars create a line and move in one direction and do not park.

Back to my story…. We pull up and I see that only two cars are in front of us and this is great.  So I ask grandbaby girl what she wants so that by the time we get to the speaker box I can holler out our order and keep it moving.  We inch up slowly because the first car left – no problem.  So we’re sitting in the car chatting and suddenly I realize that we haven’t moved an inch in at least 3 minutes.  So I look up to see what the problem is and I notice that the woman in the van in front of us is pulling out coupons and asking the guy (thru the microphone no doubt) about the specials.  Specials…at McDonald’s!!  For goodness sake, if you want a special, get something from the Dollar Menu.  Anywhoo, I try to remain calm ‘cause grandbaby girl is in the car, but it’s getting hard to do, ‘cause now WERE GONNA BE LATE FOR REHEARSAL!  I nicely blow my horn.  I say nicely ‘cause I just tapped it a bit.  Then I notice the lady in the car sticks her head out the window, looks back at me and continues flipping thru the coupons and asking about the items on the menu.  Is she foreign or something?  Who doesn’t know McDonalds’ menu?  Suddenly I can’t take it anymore and I holler out “for God’s sakes lady, this is a DRIVE THRU.  Go inside the freakin restaurant if you need to talk to somebody.”  And as if that was the “push” that was needed, the cars behind me started blowing their horn and I lay on my horn and start blowing it too until she decided to move out the way. Duh?

Now it’s my turn and of course I quickly order for two reasons: I know what we want, and now we’re late.  As I move to the window to pay, I look at the lady sitting in her car and then watch as she gets out and goes inside.  What the??  You mean you didn’t think to do this in the first place?  You actually had time (i.e., not in a rush) and was just wasting ours?  When I got to the window to pay for our meal, I asked the guy what in the world was he thinking?  This is a drive-thru.  “Why didn’t you make that lady come inside or move out the way?”  “Do you know how long she held up the line?”  He looks at me as if I’m some kind of foreigner and says nothing. Huh? I pay him for the order and then watch him like a hawk as he prepares my meal.  I mean, as far as he was concerned, I was the irate customer.  Maybe he was feeling sorry for the lady in front of me with all those coupons (some of which probably had expired already) and sympathizing with her trying to decide what to order.  Perhaps he thought I was the rude, impatient one.  Perhaps I was….nah!  It’s a “drive-thru” for goodness sake.  You’re supposed to know what you want, order it, pay for it, drive around and get it, and keep it moving.