Scattered, smothered, covered?

You know the best thing about a Waffle House?

I think it's the vanilla cokes.  They almost taste like the old-fashioned vanilla cokes from the drug store in Tullahoma, Tennessee across the street from the Methodist church downtown.  I can (or I think I can) remember having them after church at the soda fountain on Sundays.

Actually, maybe it's the chocolate ice box pie.  My daddy would stop and get me a slice while he sipped his coffee.  This was when I went with him while he worked for Southern Wholesalers. We drove all over Tennessee (or it seemed like it to this 5-year old) as he called on customers.

Or maybe it's the memories of going there really, really early in the morning after staying out really, really late at night.  Sitting there drinking coffee and eating waffles and bacon at 4 in the morning laughing with college friends who know way too much about you but can't tell those stories 'cause they know you know way too much about them.

Then again, the best thing might be going there when you are finally working for a living, making your own money and struggling to pay your meager bills (they seemed awfully big back then, didn't they?) and knowing you can afford to go to Waffle House when you can't afford much else.

No, I think the best times at Waffle House had to be when the kids were really young and you went there after church, waiting with everybody else in the chairs on the side, drinking coffee and wishing those people would hurry and eat those eggs and empty that booth by the window in front.

Could it be the times you went there with minivans and SUV's full of kids after their soccer games (or baseball, football, etc....) and let them eat and laugh and forget the score (and loosen the salt shakers when you weren't looking?)

I'm thinking that maybe the best thing about Waffle House is knowing that no matter where you're going when you visit your grandchildren, if you drive along any interstate in this country there's going to be a WH at the next exit, if nothing else.

I guess I really don't know why Waffle House is special to me.  I'm not even sure it has anything to do with the food.

This is what I do know.  A lot of my favorite memories have a Waffle House somewhere in the background.  And I really do like their vanilla cokes.