Today I went down to one of my favorite sub shops, Mick's Sub on Lindley ave. I hadn't been there in a long time. Most of the time I just go and pick up a sandwich and drive back home with it. The only times I would eat there was when my Grandmother and I would get hungry while running some errands. So I had a bittersweet moment when I ordered, turned around to find a seat, and looked right at the table that my Grandmother and I used to always sit in.  I could have sat at another table but I didn't. I was thinking of not only my Grandmother but also my Mother the other day because one of my aunts wanted to look through my Mother's photo album. Truthfully, I haven't gone through my mother's things in years. Once in a while I'll need a document and I'll go through one drawer in my mother's former room. But that's the extent of me going through her things. Even nine years later many of her things are right where she left them. The majority have been moved, yet there are still some items that we haven't moved in the nearly a decade since she passed away. So my aunt went through some of my Mother's pictures and picked out some she wanted me to scan and print out for her. She wants to make a family photo album that includes everyone. While scanning the pictures I found this one of my Mother and I sitting in the back seat of a car (below).  I remember the picture was taken on a trip to the old Lion Country Safari. If you don't know what that is it was basically a "safari" that you would drive through. The animals would be relatively free to roam around. There's still one in Florida I hear, but the one here in SoCal closed a long time ago. According to Wikipedia the one here closed and Wild Rivers replaced it. Anyway, the point was working on the photos made me think back. I'm a nostalgic person who used to hate change because my favorite places would change or go away. That part of me still doesn't like change because it means something I've come to rely on always being there goes away. But then that's the nature of life. I always expected my Mother to always be there, until she passed away. After that my faith changed and I changed, for the better I think though. I need to expand a page on my site to include all the places I visit in this city. Case in point a restaurant that goes by the name Cassell's. There is this list from Los Angeles magazine rating the best burgers in town that I've been working my way through, because I'm a burger freak. Well, Cassell's is the first place on the list that hasn't lived up to the hype.  
The burgers are pretty big, either 1/3rd of a pound or 2/3rds. Big sizes for sure, but sadly the burger meat is bland and rather tasteless. Not bad tasting, just devoid of any taste. The fries were pretty good, but also nothing that special. The only cool thing about the place is the fact that you can make the burger the way you want to because you put the fixings on it. They have a self serve area where you can put whatever condiments you want on the burger. Oh well, at least now I know that Cassell's isn't all that great. I still have a few more places from the top 10 to visit, hopefully the rest will be better than Cassell's. |
