From the saddle, you can learn all sorts of
interesting things.
For example, I never knew it was possible to
camouflage a McDonald’s until I rode on Long Island today.
It looks more like one of those
steakhouses-with-a-view one might find in Roslyn or Sea Cliff or someplace else
on the North Shore (a.k.a. Gatsby Country). Maybe
that was the intent of whoever decided to put a fast-food franchise in that
house.
According to the woman, there is upstairs “dining”
(Can anything at McDonald’s be so named?) in the upstairs room. I suppose that it makes sense when you
realize that when people go to a restaurant for the view, they’re probably not
going for the food anyway.
About those North Shore restaurants: I didn’t eat (or take in the view) in any of
them. But I rode by some of them. Roslyn’s downtown, on a cove of the Sound, is
particularly lovely. However, all of
those nice old houses (built between 1690 and 1865) are centered around this
clock tower:
I actually like the tower, except for one
thing: None of the clocks on any of the
tower’s four sides tell the same time.
And none of the times they give are the right time.
Maybe I shouldn't criticize that. After all, does anybody look at such a tower
(at least these days) to find out what time it is?
When I stopped to take the photo (with my cell
phone), I got to talking with a woman who was doing the same thing. She was visiting relatives, she said, when
she noticed it, as I did, in passing.
Her relatives never knew a McDonald’s was there; when her young niece saw
it, she exclaimed, “Ooh! The Ronald Mc
Donald House!”
Errrrrr, those of us who do not carry any kind of time device... Used to be able to rely on public clocks but no more...
ReplyDeleteIt's sort of like what's happened with public pay telephones. There seems to be an assumption that everyone carries a smart phone or some other such device.
ReplyDelete