Dr. Moreau's Island of Lost Souls, Fast Food, and Two of My Eras

Cletha, the only true vestige of my past life, has been committed to a four-story island in between a Popeyes and a former Pizza Hut, a Taco Bell and a warehouse store.

I could visit, or just circle through the driveway casting spells that don't reach past the car window.

(Three rotations clock-wise, 1 half-rotation back; go in and eat a little something then drive away in disappointed distraction thinking "Squirrel!")



Notes:

Cletha is the lady who lived upstairs who thought I was moving the furniture around.  She also raised me but I just met her because I didn't realize her personality had been reflected in two women I'd love to ignore OR engage with in a positive manner:  neither was a possibility, therefore setting up a disappointing choice no matter what I did.

I can't control it.
I couldn't change it- or at least didn't.


Pizza Hut and Taco Bell represent two periods in my life:  both involve my parents.  (Of course, everything in life involves one's parents; particularly if they don't know them.

Pizza Hut is a place I liked to go with my parents let's say when I was between the ages of eight and 15.  This would encompass Westgate through Sylvester through Briarwood through Tavares Cove; from Pixie Private School through Conniston through John I. Leonard.  That was a time of many transitions, obviously; but it was happy as far as my relationship to my parents went.

I didn't think of them as old.

I didn't think of them as particularly anything.  They were there as supports for a life I was learning to live; a future that was bright.

Taco Bell marked a transition away from home.

 I don't know when I first knew about Taco Bell, but it doesn't appear in my memory of significant facts until college.

It was a place that I introduced my parents to; unlike Pizza Hut that was introduced to me by my parents; and once employed a cousin who pointed out the huge amount of oil in each pan, placed within before the pizza.  Delicious; particularly the Supreme.

The Supremes also figure there in my memory of this time as I realized that Diana Ross's career spanned three ages- the ultimate girl-group characterized by matching yet slightly different stylings; the solo Disco queen leading to pop superstardom icons like Michael Jackson (Diana Ross introduces..... and Ease On Down the Road), and the 1980s anthem stylist later to tour with frickin' Pavarotti. 

I took my parents to Taco Bell and my Dad faded into the background as my Mom insisted on paying.  She didn't have to insist to hard.  Because there was the .59 cent menu in place at the time; which was Taco Bell's main attraction for me, Mom mistakenly thought the cashier had only rung up the total for one of us; not the three she was expecting to pay for.

Thus was born my joke that at Taco Bell you can get a franchise for five dollars.


Now, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell are hooked up with KFC I think, and taking over my waistline and also China, which were also connected to me through the Freshman Fifteen and the beginning of my six semesters of Mandarin which happened soon after the Taco Bell incident.

Today the Pizza Hut stands empty.  I'm surprised there aren't drug activities there; but I don't think there are- and the corner awaits a Checkers; which is another name for a fast food restaurant that should have an apostrophe- like Popeyes, but inexplicably does not include one.