First trip to Add's

It wasn't too long after I moved to Athens when I was in 4th grade that I asked my mom if I could meet my new friend, Susan, out for lunch. Needless she did a double take and was trying to clarify if what she was hearing was actually what I was suggesting that I do. Yes, I explained I was going to walk to Susan's house a couple miles from my own and then we were going to walk to have lunch together at Add's Drugstore. At some point my Mom agreed to our lunch plans but I think she talked to Susan's mom at some point before she agreed. And that was the first of many, many trips to Add's over the years.

What a wonderful small town thing. Add's drugstore has a quaint little lunch counter that serves up the best grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever had still to this day. I'm still not sure why they are so good- after all there are just three ingredients - bread, cheese and butter - but mmmmm are they good. They have lots of other lunch counter favorites although I've mostly stuck with grilled cheese over the years. They have hamburgers, a mysterious meat product call "Steak-um" that I've never tried, BLTs, hot dogs . . . you get the idea. Our sweet friend Laura created her own favorite the "LT" when we were in high school and didn't eat anything. You round out your meal with some hot crinkle fries and a vanilla coke (a real vanilla coke not one that comes premixed in a can) and if you still have room - the best milkshake in town. They used to make them a little too big for the cups so they would give you the extra in a small little dixie sized cup and something about that little milkshake shot always tasted extra special.

During the summers Add's is packed with little kids like we were when we first started going, all the cool high school kids, a few college kids who have somehow gotten in the loop and all the way to the die hard Athens faithful who hobble up to the counter on their way to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy. What a fun place with such great memories from growing up.

So now the tradition continues as I took Claire and Ford for the first time and it was quite a hit! Anytime you eat on a swivel stool when you are 2 it is a guaranteed good time. Add to that the fact that you get to watch your food cooking and have the promise of ice cream and it is just plain yummy fun!

Ford loved it too. He eats like a Georgia linebacker and this day was no exception. He ate an entire grilled cheese sandwich plus a few bites of his sister's, his share of fries and about half of my milkshake. No doubt he would have slurped down the whole milkshake if I hadn't insisted on having some too! Not a whole lot has changed at Add's in all these years. There are new faces behind the counter, the prices are slightly higher (I used to be able to eat lunch for less than $2.50 including tip) and there are unfamiliar faces sitting on those swivel stools but still there is that small town sense of unity in a place like that. We talked to no less than 3 people that my mom knew while we were there - old neighbors, long time acquantances and the like. I wonder if we will live in a place where my kids can share in fun neighborhood traditions like Add's (and Hodgson's too). I wonder if they still exist? I wonder what my answer would be if my 9 year old wanted to walk to eat with her friends considering "how much things have changed since I was her age". Oh my, I am a mother!