Fast Food Nation

During my half-hour recess supervision this afternoon, I approached a group of little niños playing inside the hard plastic fortress. I went up to the window and ordered from them a hamburger and fries, as if it were a drive-thru window. In that instant I had a flashback to my own niña days, when Johnny, Fuzz and I would play "Wendy's" by speaking into an oscillating fan, muffling the sound of our voices as if we were talking through the microphone attached to the plastic menu in the drive-thru lane.

Then I wondered if other cultures have fast food ingrained into their very essence from a young age, or if it's just us gringos.

I pictured my littlest students playing "tamales guy," calling out to their siblings or playmates, "Hay tamales, oaxaqueños, calientitooooooos" like the vendors who peddle around on their bike carts blasting the same prerecorded solicitation. Or mimicking the shriek whistle of the camotes (sweet potato) vendor as he pushes around his cooker-on-wheels. I've already heard the kids playing Mexican metro vendor, offering imaginary wares to each other by bellowing "tres pesooooOOOOooos." But, I suppose with a little help from globalization, all kids will be playing "drive-thru" as their little tushes get stuck going down the green plastic slide.

UPDATE: The other day one of the infant teachers sung a song in Spanish to the tune of "A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut. McDonald's, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut." That nearly sealed the deal for my hypotheses.