The excitement built with every passing roadsign.
“We have to stop there,” I told the kids. “Everyone says you shouldn’t miss it.”
And then, finally, we arrived at South of the Border.
A momentary silence filled the car, until one of my kids said, “This is it?”
(True story.)
In 1956 my dad drove the family from NY to Miami for an Easter vacation. We saw all the signs for hours getting to Florida. We drove through the place. Dad said “this place must cost a fortune” and we left and found a bungalow court. On the way back to NY we didn’t even stop to look.
SOB opened in 1950, the year I began first grade. I have lived my entire life except for military service of three years within an hour or two of it and never knew it was there until I was twenty some years old. I never actually saw it until I was twenty six and my first impression was to ask if this was somebody’s idea of an expensive joke. I don’t think I have ever spent a nickle there. It has to be the most overadvertised business in the world.