Roach coach. That’s what we called them. The “food trucks” that stopped by the hospital maintenance department where in 1962 I had my first job with a paycheck that deducted Social Security taxes and federal income taxes.
They were still roach coaches when they stopped by the road construction sites when I worked for the state prison system, on the flight line at Air Force bases, and among the warehouses at Army logistics depots.
Now, they’ve become “food trucks,” a “hip” concept for “dining” that is about to invade Peachtree City. (That is, if they’re the “right kind” of food truck. Anyone besides me wonder what that means?)
Peachtree City is about to consider an ordinance that would permit these mobile purveyors of food to set up operations.
Modern food trucks may not attract any more roaches than modern restaurants, but suggesting that they constitute a hip dining experience is so gross an exaggeration to approach the territory of a lie.
It’s bad enough that the local fast food places call themselves “restaurants,” and that the counter attendants ask “Will you be dining in today?” before asking “Do you want fries with that?” or “Do you want that grossly oversized to match your … waistline?”
It’s sad that Peachtree City has only a couple of “white table cloth” restaurants. To lower the bar by permitting “food trucks” is, or should be, anathema to anyone with good taste.
On the other hand, it’s been said that “bad money drives out good.” The entire quotation and the philosophy behind it is probably too complex to be understood by someone for whom a burger and fries constitutes a “dining experience” and who would find solace in knowing that he or she could expand the dining experience by eating food from the back of a truck.
Paul Lentz
Peachtree City, Ga.
