Taco Burgers

That title probably has you wondering what craziness is rolling through my head today.  I have so few good memories from living in my home town or with my family.  When one creeps into my mind, I like to savor it for all that it's worth.

My grandma was no saint and certainly guilty of so much wrong in my life.  But as far as my dysfunctional family goes, she was probably the best of the bunch.  She wasn't physically abusive.  She definitely isn't off the hook.  It was her taking the soft-core pornographic photos of myself and other children in my family.  As I wrote in a previous post, she was extremely mentally unstable. 

Regardless of her shortcomings, she was probably the most overtly caring person in my family. 

It was 14 years ago this month, that she was helping me plan a wedding.  Little did I know, she was incredibly sick and her death was soon to follow. 

She was the person who helped the most with wedding plans and even helped a little bit financially.  I lived with her and my grandpa at the time, giving me an opportunity to have a few special moments as I prepared to move onto the next stage of my life.

I had finished my job at the school in May and was home a lot.  One of the things we would do is make a 10 mile trek to the next town south of us to have lunch once a week.  We even made the trip on Mondays that I had free from work.

This isn't from 1998, but 2012. It brought back a lot of good memories.

 We would drive through the same little fast food place every time.  We would go to Taco Johns and get taco burgers.  On Monday's, they were only 50 cents each.  We'd head home with a bag full of taco burgers and arrive with an empty bag.

They weren't big, but were oh so good.  Taco meat covered with cheese, lettuce and tomato on a bun...how could you go wrong with that?  My 5'2" 130 lb grandma could eat far more than I could.  The sicker she got, the less she would eat. 

We didn't talk a lot and we didn't ever do anything else while on our trip.  It was a break from the norm.  A special time spent with her with no expectations.

I was super excited a few years ago to find a Taco Johns nearby.  Walking in the door brings back so many memories of nothing more significant than just taking a deep breath and stepping away from reality for an hour.

The summer of 1998, I made 6 trips to Taco Johns with my grandma.  At the beginning of summer, I knew my time with her would be coming to an end.  In August, I would be moving two hours away and life would be dramatically changed. 

When summer began, I never imagined that those would be the last 6 trips I made with her.  They would be the last 6 trips I made anywhere with her. 

It's a bit sad that some of my best memories of my grandma involve a car ride to get a bag of taco burgers.  After remembering so much about my past in the last five years, now I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.  They maybe few, but at least I have a couple memories that weren't terrible.