| 6th May |
Message In A Bottle
After walking around the St. Louis arch and down by the Mississippi, Helen and I headed back to the south side of town and ate our dinner at an Italian restaurant directly across the steet from Drewe's. It was a perfect vantage point for watching the neon sign flicker on and the steady stream of people, drawn like worshippers to a shrine, coming for their evening treat. It really was a remarkable phenomena and unlike other places we have encountered on the route, most of which just about manage to stay in business. I decided to leave a note for the Drewes, which I wrote in my journal and then tore out and took across the street (and yes, I might have come back with one more scoop of vanilla custard covered in butterscotch and pecans...) It was a longish letter which I won't try to repeat here, though I don't mind sharing that I praised the Drewes for their refusal to become a franchise. Not that I am inherently against franchises per se, but the thing about Route 66 and all those giant whales and giant billboards and neon signs and wigwam motels is that every single one of those places was (and some still are) unique and one of a kind which is what makes them so special and so 'real'. Ted Drewes is a millionaire, but he could have been a billionaire. He choses to operate one store, serving one flavour: vanilla.
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