It’s really sad, the cultural divides that separate us…
On the occasion of the State of the Union address, the Washington Post today profiled Randolph, Utah, where Bush received 95.6 percent of the vote in 2004:
“Patty melts! No one makes patty melts anymore,” [the customer] is saying to the counterman, Ryan Louderman, who knew she wasn’t local as soon as he heard the sound of a car being locked. “Can I get it without onions?” she says. “And can I get mustard? On the side? Dijon mustard?”
“I don’t think we have Dijon mustard,” says Louderman, who is 15 and would have voted for Bush if he could have. “I think we only have regular mustard.” But he writes it down anyway and gives the order to Pat Orton, the owner and cook.
“No onions? With mustard?” says Orton, who voted for Bush in 2004 and 2000. “Oh, God, we get some weird ones” — but she cooks it anyway, as requested, and passes the non-patty melt out to the woman, who takes a bite, declares it “fabulous” and wraps up the rest to go. She’s on her way to a ski resort. She is going to be lifted by helicopter to the top of a mountain with untouched snow, and then she is going to ski down.
“Clang” goes the cowbell on the door as she leaves.
“Beep” goes the remote-controlled lock on her SUV.
“Dijon mustard,” Louderman says as the woman drives away. “I don’t know what Dijon mustard is. Don’t care to find out, either.”
From a 2004 profile in the New York Times of two very different restaurants in New Martinsville, West Virginia:
When I asked other people why they chose Bob Evans over Baristas, most folks just smiled and shook their heads. One young woman told me her father doesn’t like her eating at Baristas because ”it’s like feeding your money to Satan.” One regular said he didn’t know why he ate at Bob Evans, but he thought it might have something to do with it being so consistent. ”I’m not big on change,” he told me. ”That’s why I’m voting for George W. It’s just too dangerous to change stride now. It’s best to leave well enough alone.”
One woman lowered her voice and whispered: ”Baristas’ problem is, they try to make fancy food. We’re simple people here. We don’t like a lot of spices and stuff. A little salt and pepper is good enough for us. You have to develop a taste for that fancy stuff, and we don’t really want to.”
Another woman pointed to my pork chop dinner and said: ”You’ve got to remember, this is what we were raised on. If people want to go into Baristas for a bean-sprout sandwich, that’s fine, but around here, we don’t do that sort of thing.”