Golden Corral Fancy
I returned home last night after a long but productive week in Houston, TX. Since beginning intermittent fasting about a year ago, I’ve come to greatly appreciate (and anticipate) my two meals per day. Further, my love for Taco Bell is unparalleled! For those two reasons, I savored the heck out of a lunch Taco Bell run this week. While sitting there by myself (enjoying a Beefy Burrito smothered in Diablo sauce), I had a few flashbacks.
Growing up in a small town in NW Illinois, we didn’t have much for dining. A few bars, a couple local restaurants, a Casey’s, and eventually a Subway in my teen years. Therefore, going out to eat was a special occasion in my family……which always required a 30-45 minute drive. In the Shelton household, there were three dining levels:
Casual: Taco Bell (see where I get it from?!?!)
Upscale: Pizza Hut (I can still taste those Book-It personal pan pizzas and breadsticks!)
Fancy: Golden Corral (this was the pinnacle of dining experiences)
Now, before you get all judgy with me, let me refresh your memory on just how amazing Golden Corral is:
All you can eat!
Cuisines from all over the world, such as Italian (pizza and pasta), Mexican (tacos and nachos), Asian (stir fry), and American (meat, potatoes, and casseroles).
Don’t even get me started on the dessert bar and self-serve ice cream station!
Some dude carving hunks of meat and placing them oh so gently on your plate like a food butler.
You can re-fill your pop as many times as you’d like…..every kid’s dream!
There’s no fancy like Golden Corral fancy! To this day, I smile when I see one. I even took the boys on their first-ever Golden Corral experience last summer.
Yes, there’s more to this post than a trip down memory lane. I’m really grateful for this part of my childhood. I think it’s one of the contributing factors to being grounded in my adulthood. These experiences, which build the foundation of our sense of reality, create a healthy perspective and allow for contentment. I love a fancy steakhouse or Michelin-starred restaurant like the next guy, but I’ll also take Taco Bell or Golden Corral any day of the week (sorry, Pizza Hut, you lost your mojo).
As a parent, I want the same for my kids. It’s my job to help my children build a proper foundation of reality. Sure, we’ll do some special things along the way, but I want them to live with contentment and be grateful for what they have. This will be tremendously important as they grow and begin their own adult lives. I’d even take it a step further and propose it will fundamentally transform their relationship with money, stuff, and lifestyle. They deserve a healthy relationship with the world, and I’m on a mission to help them find it. I hope you take a page from the same playbook with your kids!