In a shocking turn of events, it has been announced that Ronald McDonald will be getting a makeover. Apparently, the chain wants to promote a healthier, trendier menu. OK… are we getting rid of Happy Meals, the Big Mac (hold the pickle), and all the rest? I can;t believe that they would be doing away with the character totally with the Ronald McDonald House which he has given his name to for the past several years. While the decades (48 years to be exact) old fixture has not been as visible in ads for the fast food chain, I remember my birthday party the summer after I completed Kindergarten (I think I was 9 at the time… I had a little problem with eating glue… HAHA!). McDs was the place to celebrate when you were a child of the mid-70s… my corner of the woods did not have a Chuck E Cheese or Crazy Pinz.
Hope the video doesn’t frighten anyone TOO much.
We had a Showbiz Pizza (precursor to Chuck E Cheese) and some other places, but I still had my party at McDonald’s one year. They had a little train that kids could sit in and eat. It’s fun to look at the pictures of that birthday party and see the old uniforms on the staff and even some glimpses of the 80’s menu board. The old playground equipment was classic as well. I used to climb up into the Big Mac climber and get stuck because I was afraid to climb down.
http://playgrounddesigns.blogspot.com/2009/08/that-seventies-playground-mcdonalds-c.html
There is a house near where I used to live that has a bunch of these playground pieces in their yard; it’s a fun to display to look at on the rare occasion I drive by.
I had heard about the re-doing of Ronald, but that was awhile ago, so I thought they had canned it. Wonder what was with the delay?
The article I linked to is old as well. I just heard about it again last night on the news.
You were 9 when you finished kindergarten??? WOW!
It’s little things like that which gets the lurkers commenting 😉
Taylhis, Liked the link to the playground equipment. Precursor to the Play Place? Unfortunately, the old McDs in Btown didn’t have them.
You haven’t played on the old playground equipment? I would assume that they had it everywhere, so if you traveled maybe you played on some. Pry not enough to remember it as a part of childhood. Lots of kids had their bday parties at McD’s, so we played on the classic stuff all the time. Kind of a precursor to the Playplace, though the only things indoors were the little train full of tables to eat at and sometimes the tree that you can see in the pictures. Gonna have to ask my mom to bring that album next time she comes 🙂
I just read that Ronald will keep his job. 😉
Hey, tangents seems to be back up. I don’t remember ever playing at a McDonalds. Come to think of it, we really didn’t go much when I was a kid. Ah, well.