The screen was torn down years ago, but the marquee survives, hidden under a pasteboard sign. Until recently, the concession/projection building was still standing, covered with weeds and surrounded by rusty farm implements. Some of the letters spelling CAR BREEZE DRIVE-IN were still attached to the counter, and some of the equipment was still rusting away under the rotted ceiling.
I used to check on the status of this relic every time I passed by. Today, on my first visit in several months, I couldn't help but notice that the lot had been cleared of weeds and implements, and the old drive-in building had at last been leveled.
But in its place stood something pretty wonderful:
Yes, it's the severed bun of Officer Cheeseburger, McDonaldland's most-decorated keeper of the peace.
His torso was found several paces away.
Actually, the discovery of this wayward piece of playground equipment wasn't a very big surprise. For a few years, a grade school in nearby Breese has been in possession of another piece of old-school playground equipment, apparently donated when a local McDonald's upgraded to the Playplace: a slide festooned with the head of Captain Crook, a long-decommissioned McDonaldland villain. I think I remember seeing other pieces of McDonald's playgrounds scattered around this part of Illinois, usually in school or civic park playgrounds. Do you know of any?
1 comment:
That story of the McD's playground equipment is interesting. I spent a few years in Centralia as a very young kid but rarely go back, so I don't know of any. But now I'm rarin' to go looking.
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