In 1996, we lived in Tallahassee Florida while I completed my Ph.D. at Florida State University. Annette's sister, Rachel moved to St. Louis Missouri that year. We decided that we would visit Rachel and Robert for Christmas that year. For some reason that I do not remember, we decided that we would travel on Christmas day from Tallahassee to St. Louis. As part of that decision, we also decided to have Christmas in Tallahassee occur on December 24.
We did all of our Christmas shopping. We had the Christmas tree and other decorations throughout the house. On December 23, we told Jamie and Tanner that it was Christmas Eve. That night before we put Jamie and Tanner to bed, we put out Christmas stockings on the couch and left "mountain pizza" on a plate for Santa. The next morning, December 24, we awoke to find that Santa had visited during the night. We opened our presents and had Christmas dinner.
During that era of life, for road trips, Annette and I would pack everything in the car the night before we planned to travel. Then we would get up at 4:00 a.m. get the kids out of bed in their pajamas, load them in the car, and get on the road. When the kids woke up around 8:00 a.m. we would find someplace to stop for breakfast and change clothes.
On December 25, we loaded JT (one of the nicknames I used for Jamie and Tanner together) in the car and hit the road. We got to Montgomery Alabama around 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. Jamie and Tanner were just starting to wake up but they were still traveling quite well. So, we did not stop. However, a few more miles down the road, Tanner started to be a bit fussy. We knew it was time to stop.
We pulled off Interstate 65 at the next exit. However, all the gas stations and eating places at that exit were closed. We then realized the folly of our choice to travel on Christmas Day. We got back on the highway and continued to the next exit. All the places there were closed as well. This continued for several exits.
Finally, we got to Clanton Alabama. We took the first exit and found a place that was open - Waffle House! It was the only place open. The parking lot was full of cars. We got Jamie and Tanner out and went into the restaurant. While we had seen Waffle House frequently since we moved to Florida, we had never been to one.
The inside was crowded, noisy, and filled with cigarette smoke. The interior did not exhibit an overall look and feel of cleanliness. The hostess escorted us to the only booth left in the restaurant. There was a guy sitting in the next booth spouting cigarette smoke like a chimney.
When the waitress came to take our order, she wrote it all down on her notepad, then and turned and shouted the order to the cook behind the counter. Further, Annette had never eaten at an open kitchen style restaurant. She was surprised by the vocal shouting of our order to the cooks.
Our food came relatively quickly. It tasted good. Annette did not like the food because she could see all that was going on in the kitchen. Annette was also five months pregnant with Allyn. So, she had pregnancy hormones playing games with sights and smells of the restaurant. We ate our food, paid our check, and got outside to the fresh air. We got in the car and continued on our trip.
Normally, we would have helped Jamie and Tanner change from their pajamas into clothes at the restaurant. However, Annette visited the Waffle House restroom and declared we would not change there. We continued down the highway and changed at the next rest stop.
We have never forgotten that trip and our experience at Waffle House. We have also never returned to Waffle House to eat. We have never traveled on Christmas Day again.
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| Jamie and Tanner snuggling in the car December 1996 (not the trip described in this post but about the same time of year) note Jamie's short pants and coat! |
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