Sanitary... no big whoop

So I had a relaxing 24 hour period at the beach with my buddy Nick. While we were there I made it a point to check out the Sanitary Fish Market in Morehead. I've heard about this place for years. It seemed like all the popular kids in highschool had a t-shirt form this place, like it was some kind of status symbol telling me that, 'yes, my family can afford to take week long beach trips over the summer, and we eat at fancy seafood restaraunts, all while you have to sit at home or work all summer.'

Well now I've got my own little place at the beach (that I rarely get too because I can never seem to find anyone available to go with). My brother goes out there more than I do, and after a few trips he starts raving about Sanitary...'Dennis, you have to go there, they've got great lunch specials!... I think I'm getting mom a t-shirt, do you thinki she'll like a t-shirt from there?"

Then Nick kept talking about the place too, 'We went there every year when I was kid. I remember that place being so cool. I loved that place.'

So we go. To me, it just looks like every other seafood place at the beach, just like 100 other places I've been to. Its an older place, hardwood floors, old wooden tables and chairs, and the menu looks pretty simple. Even the prices look to be in line with your typical beach seafood place. I ordered the shrimp lunch special. I got a small plate of shrimp, some greenbeans (which were really good), and some steamed brockely (which was not so good). It all just seemed average to me... no big whoop.

But to hear Nick talk about the place, and tell the stories of how he went there with his family as a child... I could tell, that in his eyes, the place was still pretty damn cool. So I think that's what's special about the place; the memories it envokes. I think people go there as children, and associate it with the wonder and awesome happiness that the beach seems to grant children. They grow up holding on the the memory of that feeling and association, so they go back as adults to touch the happiness of childhood, and they take their own kids and pass on the association. It's not about the restaraunt itself; it's about the memories, and using the restaraunt as a conduit to guide those memories and emotions from our pasts to our present.

At least that's how explain most people's fascination with it. I don't know why my brother likes it so much.

Me, I'd rather eat at the farmer's market. It's a lot better and a hell of a lot cheaper.