Happy Monday. Weird urge for curly fries today.
Not that I pay that much attention to trends and whatnot on social media - laying off Twitter and TikTok seems prescient now - but it was hard not to notice one post over the weekend.
“Arby’s at Knollwood Street Closing tomorrow! It’s been there since 1969! I went there quite a bit in the 1980’s when I managed The Record Exchange at Knollwood Manor!” wrote Chuck Dale Smith on Facebook.
Say it ain’t so, Bo.
That one small notice, accompanied as it was by a split-screen photo of that iconic brown cowboy hat and the simple slogan Arby’s Roast Beef sandwich is delicious, set off a tsunami of reminiscence.
And next to none of it had anything to do with the food. Though friend Bo Gray did note that it served his “favorite triglyceride sandwich … I’m not happy, but my cardiologist will be relieved.”
People are also reading…
For most, the attraction was that sign, an act of inspired ad-rep genius that followed soon after the chain’s 1964 birth in the Midwest.
(Brothers Forrest and Leroy Raffel, who figured there was room in the burgeoning fast-food scene for something other than a burger, opened the first one in Ohio. The Arby’s name, apropos of nothing, came from initials RB - for Raffel Brothers - not roast beef.)
Triglycerides notwithstanding, a lot of the local outpouring dealt with memories associated with leaving high-school campus for lunch, whiling away hours flipping through vinyl in the aforementioned Record Exchange, first jobs and first dates.
A fun little side trip down Memory Lane marred by the pervasive, omnipresent nastiness of some members of the online commentariat.
Side spats, fueled by curmudgeons and sticklers, over whether that particular franchise opened in 1968 or ‘69 and whether the tall brown sign was “historic” or merely “vintage” stole a little of the joy of reminiscence - but only just.
Social media posts are diversions, not dissertations.
So long, Sears
GREENSBORO - As long as we’re waving goodbye to icons, a tip of the big brown hat to Sears in the Friendly Center might also be in order.
It’s the last in the state, the end of an era in American retailing that stretched across generations.
The company hasn’t turned a profit since 2010 and closing announcements have been coming rapidfire ever since.
The Sears at Hanes Mall closed in 2019, serving for a time as COVID-19 vaccination center during its repurposing before as auxiliary space for Novant Health.
“The company that once began as a remote-order and direct-delivery business has now all but lost the battle for survival to a retail environment that is, once again, becoming remote-order and direct-delivery,” noted Roger Beahm, a marketing professor at Wake Forest University’s School of Business.
Chasing cheese in the maze
WINSTON-SALEM - This week’s installment of negotiating the maze of lane and road closures in Camel City begins with Monday's hassle on Peace Haven Road.
One travel lane of Peace Haven between Aquadale Lane and Winchelsea Road is scheduled to be closed between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. today for some sort of road work.
And ceaseless (but necessary) upgrades of the city’s sewer system - with the possible exception of police, there is no more important municipal service - will close part of Country Club Road today and Tuesday between Stratford Road and Westview from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesday and Wednesday, the fun moves over to Stratford between Robinhood and Forest Drive.
Stay patient and keep eyes peeled for the flaggers trying to make a living.