Reverend Al Sharpton said it all on\u00a0MSNBC<\/em>\u00a0this morning:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re worried about the logo, when there\u2019s nothing healthy on the menu\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday I wrote about the month of August, \u201csilly season\u201d in the media world.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s not much silly in our current news, but here\u2019s one.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s about a restaurant chain called \u201cCracker Barrel\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cracker Barrel found a niche in American life.\u00a0\u00a0They were originally an Interstate stop, a restaurant that you\u2019d pull off on a long trip, and depend on the menu and food quality.\u00a0\u00a0And it worked. Their menu is based on what would have been served on Walton\u2019s Mountain. (Remember the long-running TV show,\u00a0the Walton<\/em>\u2019s, with John-Boy and Jim-Bob and the rest of the clan?)\u00a0\u00a0Cracker Barrel d\u00e9cor is straight out of post-Depression America:\u00a0\u00a0washboards and long timber saws, old metal signs advertising\u00a0\u00a0tooth powder and Brylcreem, RC Cola and Goody\u2019s Headache powder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One proviso:\u00a0\u00a0if you\u2019re the driver, you need to be careful at Cracker Barrel.\u00a0\u00a0The food is heavy on carbs; biscuits and gravy, fried chicken and mashed potatoes, country-fried steak and beans.\u00a0\u00a0You might went to hold back a little bit, or find yourself yawning\u00a0\u00a0fifteen miles down the road.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And for locals who go to Cracker Barrel, well, I used to say that Jenn and I lowered the average age whenever we went.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe, at sixty-eight about to be sixty-nine, I don\u2019t do much lowering anymore, but Jenn still does!!!\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the Bob Evans crowd, and like that more local chain, both serve a mean breakfast, all day long.\u00a0\u00a0At Bob Evans it\u2019s called the \u201cHomestead\u201d, two eggs, bacon, ham, or sausage, biscuits and gravy, hash browns.\u00a0\u00a0It takes two plates.\u00a0\u00a0The similar meal at Cracker Barrel is called the \u201cOld Timer\u2019s\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve got both memorized.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If breakfast is your favorite meal, it\u2019s the bomb.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final Cracker Barrel touch is the \u201cold country store\u201d in the lobby, and the rocking chairs on the front\u00a0\u00a0porch.\u00a0\u00a0That all works too. You can often find the elderly watching the world go by in the rockers as their biscuits settle.\u00a0\u00a0And if you are looking for brand new versions of old LP records \u2013 why it\u2019s at the Cracker Barrel.\u00a0\u00a0And not just Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn, I found Jimi Hendrix\u2019s \u201cAre You Experienced\u201d, a brand new press, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what\u2019s the news?\u00a0\u00a0Well, Cracker Barrel\u2019s original logo was the words \u201cCracker Barrel\u201d in what looked like a pumpkin outline, beside a barrel.\u00a0\u00a0And sitting by the barrel was an old guy in a straight-backed chair.\u00a0\u00a0It was like if you came down from Walton\u2019s Mountain to town for supplies.\u00a0\u00a0The problem is the logo\u2019s complicated:\u00a0from afar, coming down the interstate with only seconds to decide whether to exit or not, you could read the words but the rest of the sign was too hard to decipher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week, Cracker Barrel \u201ccorporate\u201d decided to simplify things.\u00a0\u00a0They announced they were going with just the words, and cutting out the old guy, the chair, and the barrel.\u00a0\u00a0And MAGA world went nuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why would corporate mess with what a pretty good thing?\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s simple:\u00a0\u00a0I made a\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWalton\u2019s\u201d reference at the beginning of this essay.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe Walton\u2019s\u201d went off the air in 1981.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s forty-four years ago.\u00a0\u00a0While the show went into syndication and reruns, you have to be in your fifties to even, maybe, have a memory of the original.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s a reason why I probably equal the average age in the restaurant. Management was looking to appeal to a younger generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, MAGA-world saw the removal of the old guy and the barrel as, somehow, \u201cWOKE\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And WOKE, along with the \u201csecret\u201d initials \u201cDEI\u201d, are the worst possible insults.\u00a0\u00a0Say that the hash browns are soggy, demand that the country-fried steak be more than hamburger, inquire what really is in the sawmill gravy:\u00a0\u00a0but don\u2019t call Cracker Barrel \u201cWOKE\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Even if the MAGA-world doesn\u2019t really know what \u201cGoody\u2019s Headache Powder\u201d or \u201cRC Cola\u201d was, they demanded the corporate Cracker Barrel rescind the changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And they did.\u00a0\u00a0The wrath of MAGA-world is more than their restaurant chain can bear.\u00a0\u00a0So the old guy is back, in the chair, beside the cracker barrel; telling a visual story far too complicated to understand.\u00a0\u00a0And the corporate problem remains:\u00a0\u00a0how to compete with the \u201ccooler\u201d restaurants down the road, from BW\u2019s (wings) to Scramblers (breakfast).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The appeal of Cracker Barrel may still be strong, but their demographic is doing the absolute worst thing for their business \u2013 they\u2019re dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLocal Breakfast<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Sign<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Dying Off<\/h2>\n\n\n\n