Putting the Wraps on Macon

Most of my visits to Macon these days are to visit with old friends. The first part of my time in Macon was visiting with friends I'd lost over the years, and old places I miss. Not all of my friends in Macon are gone, of course. In fact I would be staying this trip with my brother Eric and his wife Greta. Eric is of course one of my closest fraternity brothers.The irony of staying at Eric's house is that I actually used to live around the corner from him.The first floor screened porch on the left was my apartment for about two years. I learned several lessons while I lived there: When you rent an apartment, only rent what you need, not what you can afford. I detest hardwood floors. I hate upstairs neighbors who like to go to Whiskey River in the middle of the week and then come home at 3am in their cowboy boots and stomp around drunk for 2 hours. Directly across the street from my apartment as Rembert Ave. When I first started at Mercer it was well known that you could buy whatever "recreational party favors" you needed down on Rembert. Thankfully, Mercer has finally cleaned that neighborhood up and it's a really neat place to live now. If only Mercer could go ahead and buy the entire city of Macon and clean it up as well. While I am in town I try to get out to see my barber. Prior to starting college my mother was really the only person who cut my hair. I have tempermental hair. It's thick and can be unruly and I have a ferocious cowlick that will leap out at you if you don't know what you are doing. It took a while before I finally gave in and found a barber in Macon. And he continued to cut my hair for about the following 17 years. Once you find a good barber and a good bartender, you should never let go of them without a fight. They tend to know everything and everyone, and can keep you from looking like an idiot.Bill and his neice Michelle have always been very good to me over the years and when I get back to town they welcome me back with open arms. I have said it before and I'll say it again: customer service is the only way to get and keep customers. When you make someone feel welcome they'll keep coming back. And speaking of loyalty and customer service. My last day in Macon was Thursday. What do you do on Thursday in Macon? Well you eat at Krystal of course. The problem is that my Krystal is closed. That wasn't really a problem though because I kenw where the Krystal with the best customer service would be: Bernida's in Warner Robins.When my Krystal closed they scattered the employees all over Macon but Bernida was sent down to the Watson Blvd store in Warner Robins. It seemed a bit odd, but now that I've been there and talked to Bernida, I understand. The Watson store was not doing so well. Bernida is one of the best store managers Krystal has so who better to whip it into shape? As I sat there eating my lunch I smiled at the familiar voice that rose over everything as Bernida laid down the law: "Drive thru, you're killing my service time!" "My customers are growing cobwebs waiting on their food." "Grill, when you hear them placing their order, you should be making their order. We wait on customers, they don't wait on us!" It felt sort of like home. I miss the good old days. Apparently Bernida has a vacation schedule right about now (mid January) and she's got to get that store in shape to survive without her being there. If anyone can do it, it's Bernida, but if anyone needs a vacation it's Bernida. She's the best. The minute they figure out this cloning thing, Krystal needs to klone Bernida and put one in every store. before they do that, though, they made need to have some remedial english classes. I was saddened as I drove away to see this:Yes I know I'm prone to typos in my blog. Sue me. I type fast but I type poorly. I accept that. The problem here is "Krystal" is spelled correctly on the sign in HUGE letters like 6 feet above. Not to mention it's written all over pretty much everything. ARGH! Thankfully I had one of the new (at the time) Mint Chocolate Milkquakes to help me cool off.And let there be no doubt. It is minty and chocolately, and it'll cool you off for sure. If you could drink a frozen Girlscout thin mint, this is what it would taste like.And by "frozen Girlscout thin mint" I mean a frozen cookie, not a frozen Girlscout.