McDonald's Supersize Value Meal and Leah H

I don't remember everything that happened the summer when I decided that it was time for me to visit my family back in Kingston, NY. I didn't even have a car or an extra dime to my name. My friend Leah decided that she wanted to make a road trip and most of all, she wanted to meet my family. My friendship with Leah sure was a unique one, to say the least and my Aunt Anita was probably the first to realize this. Her favorite day of each month was the 19th because this was the number of Jimmy Ballantine, her favorite obsession on the Columbus Chill.

Leah and I met at JC Penney at Westland Mall. She worked in the salon as a receptionist and I was the Levi's specialist in Young Men's. I could fold a pair of jeans like nobody else. Usually my department was so well recovered that customers were afraid to touch the piles of jeans. I would make them wait for me to get their size from the stockroom so I didn't have to mess up my displays. In my spare time, I called my friend Heather from what was called Mature Men's where they had Dockers and Tommy Bahama shirts. Heather was best friends with Allison, who was a floater and ended up in random departments where people called out sick. Allison always called to tell me which department she was in when she got there. One day, she called and said, "I'm not going to tell you where I am, but here is my extension, call me right back to find out." I called and she answered, "LAAAAAAAAAAAAAMPS, this is Allison!" I laughed hysterically, barely able to stay standing. I didn't even know we had a Lamp Department at Penney's and turns out it was in the basement.

My friend Leah did make the long trek from Ohio to NY, all the way through Pennsylvania. I don't even remember driving. I think she insisted that she would drive the whole way. Leah drove me everywhere I needed to go- work, grocery, home, movie theater, etc. I remember she kept her keys in her purse, but not much else fit in her purse because she had about 73 key chains on her key ring. I don't know if she just grabbed a key chain wherever she went or not- I wonder if she picked one up in New York that summer.

When we finally arrived in Kingston, we went directly to my Aunt Anita's, at Dancin' Tables on Albany Avenue. There, I knew she would be waiting for us with my Grandma, as I had called early in the morning to let her know we were on our way. Leah and I were only in town for a couple of days and it was easy to let everyone know that I would be at the "shop" there at my Aunt Anita's and they could all drop by to see me. We had a barbecue that night and Aunt Anita entertained me and my friend Leah until wee hours of the morning. We laughed at Aunt Anita's "I said to my friend" jokes and Leah just thought my aunt was the coolest. She in turn, tried to make my aunt laugh with very little success.

The next day, for some reason, we ended up at McDonald's. We had gone there because we were starving and could not wait to head out to the grocery, come back home and cook. It was a moment of desperate starvation and apparently, we were not the only ones in need of food fast. The place was crowded and every one of the four registers was open. There was a line at each register. Leah and I stood in one line at the first register while Aunt Anita and my cousins stood in line at the last register. This left two lines in between us. Once Leah and I decided what we wanted, we kept watching my aunt get closer to ordering than we were. Leah suddenly grabbed my arm, pushed me aside and yelled at the top of her lungs, across the crowd of people, "HEY ANITA!!! SUPERSIZE IT!!!" Aunt Anita yelled back, "What?!" and Leah repeated even louder, "SUPERSIZE IT ANITA, DON"T FORGET TO SUPERSIZE IT!!!" This was when Supersize was a newly invented term and not everyone knew what that meant yet. Everyone in the restaurant turned to look at us, anxious to see who was supersizing their meal so enthusiastically.

There is not a time when I'm going through a drive-thru or eating at a fast food restaurant where this story doesn't cross my mind... the time I was totally embarrassed in the middle of McDonald's.