If you do not live in the state, you may not have known that Georgia is owned by the Cathy family.  You may have mistakenly thought it was owned by Ted Turner, Arthur Blank & Bernie Marcus, or some silent stakeholders of Coca Cola stock.  No.  The Cathy family.  As such, there is a Cathy family restaurant on every corner.

There is Chick-fil-A (about a billion of them), Truett’s Grill, The Dwarf House, and Truett’s Luau.  I’ve eaten at all of them.  Here’s where today’s story begins.  Just before noon, I was in between meetings and needed a quick lunch.  Since there is a Cathy family restaurant on every corner, naturally that was my restaurant of choice.  I chose Truett’s Luau in Fayetteville, Georgia.  I rushed down the street and turned quickly into the parking lot.  I don’t go there often and had never driven there myself.  After turning into the parking lot, I made a sharp right turn to grab a parking spot. Turns out I was in one of two wide lanes that were the drive through lanes.  Of course only AFTER I was stuck did I see the teeny tiny dwarf-sized signs that said “drive thru.”

I quickly threw my car into reverse and started backing up.  Dangerous for me as I am not the best backer-upper.  I do, however, have a back-up camera.  My passenger, seemingly not noticing that I was looking at the camera, wrenched his head and neck around to look back, appearing rather nervous, if not a tad bit embarrassed.  I kept butting up against the curb.  I couldn’t quite navigate the curvy lane.

Just as I was nearing the end of the drive, of course two cars pulled up behind me heading for the drive thru.  Nooooo. They couldn’t go into the perfectly clear lane to the right.  They had to sit behind me in the left lane.  “People,” I said, to myself and my passenger.  “Get out of my way so I can back out!”  I rolled down my window and waved them back.  My passenger seemed to get more nervous, or perhaps more embarrassed. He jumped out of the car.  “Here, let me help.”   He waved the two cars around me.  Finally I was able to back out the rest of the way and get to the correct area of the parking lot and pull into a space. 

Now, this is every day life for me.  If you’ve read my blog even once you know this sounds just like me. So, just routine.  The problem today was that I didn’t have that extra five minutes of tom-foolery to spare.  I went into Luau, ate lunch with my passenger and another colleague we met (he had called my cell to find out where the heck we were….oh, only in the  DRIVE THRU LANE!)

At the end of our meal I reached into my purse for some money. Hot dog! I found something even better! Cathy cash. Since the Cathy’s own Georgia they have their own currency. They look like regular gift cards. But they are like cash in Georgia. I have several of them in my wallet. I am lucky in that my husband is a beloved school bus driver and the parents often show their appreciation by giving him Cathy cash.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had the opportunity to eat at a Cathy restaurant. If you live in Georgia you sort of have to. But, the food is good and the sweet tea is excellent. One might suppose that Coke is the official drink of Georgia, but not so. Chick-fil-A sweet tea is.

I hope you receive this in the fun spirit in which it is meant. I have met Dan Cathy, in a business setting. He gave me the peach pie that is the featured image on this post. He was very nice and the pie quite yummy.

So, my advice to you is “Eat mor chikin.”

dmzh