I am filing this under my storied of living in Mesquite even though the premise of this does not take place in Mesquite but it has its tie in. As with the previous post about cruising the streets of Mesquite, you read that we would go to the Taco Bell and hang out in the parking lot. Well, there was a place that was on Town East, by the mall that I never gave any thought to growing up in that area. The place, Taco Bueno. There were a few times that we would stop in there on the way home from Church or maybe on the random school night to get some grub but I never held it in high regard. There was a McDonald's, Jack in the Box and the Taco Bell that were more accessible to me. Life moved along at its natural pace and I moved away leaving all things Mesquite behind. When I lived in Louisiana, I would see a Taco Bueno next to a Whataburger. I would choose Whataburger. When I lived in Florida, there weren't any Taco Bueno's around or if there were, they weren't relative to me as I would've jsut passed them by. In San Antonio, come on, who goes to a Taco Bueno in San Antonio? Well, as my travels brought me back to the DFW area, I decided to reside on Greenville Avenue. I have been in this are for the last couple of years and there is a gamut of fast food places around here. Wendy's, Steak N Shake, McD, Whataburger and so on. Many times, I would roll right past the Taco Bueno and go to one of the other previously mentioned places to satisfy my urge for extremely delicious and greasy foods that any nutritionist would throw up at.

One day on the way home from a meeting at the radio station, I wanted a shake from Steak n Shake. It was around the dreaded noon lunch rush and I pulled intot the parking lot, made the turn toward the drive through and it was PACKED! Being your average lazy American, I didn't want to park and go in just to order a shake. As I was contemplating what I wanted to do, I looked to my right to see the Taco Bueno, that I had forever disregarded. I thought,"Ehhhhhhh... Why not?" So I pulled out of the Steak n Shake drive through line and rolled over to the Bueno. I pulled into the nice 2 lane drive through and I got a good look a the menu. The first thing I noticed was a big glaring sign that said,"Whole Lotta Platter" MY GOODNESS! Could this be a full fledged meal on a plate? Is it going to be presented as it appears in the pictures? Do I really get chips, an enchilada, taco and soft taco? Beans and rice? Oh my! Give me that! Upon arrival to the window, my excitement level was brimming with Mexican fast food happiness! The guy hands me a huge bag with the food on a plate with the standard clear plastic cover. I rushed home, ran inside, opened the bag and was befuddled at the greatness that lay before me! I immediately had flashbacks of good times, sitting on the patio at Gloria's with one of their great plates. The feeling of discovery that had come over me was one of great magnitude! How could a fast food place that had been in my life for so many years plate up a big plate of Mexican food and I didn't even know about it. We're not talking about tacos wrapped in paper and then thrown in a bag. This was a real lunch that I got from a drive through. I finished it off, leaned back in my chair and said,"Why? Oh why have I neglected you, my sweet clean Taco Bueno?" It was then that the sudden impact of all of their Bueno Head advertising made sense. I am a Bueno Head.

It seems like it was yesterday that I was submersed in all things high school. The dread of getting up early to go to school. The tiresome day that would include sitting in class all day. The excitement of sports at the end of the day and the thrill of the weekend!

As rebellious as we thought we were, I look back and realize that we were probably no different than my parents or your parents. However, the thrill of going home, eating dinner and getting dressed up in your coolest weekend clothes made you feel like the world revolved around you!

I'm not sure how you spent your weekends but mine were spent doing the coolest thing on the face of the Earth, cruising Galloway! Thats right, you lame-o's, if you werent cruising up and down the street despite the sign that said,"Passing by this sign more than 3 times is cruising. You'll get a ticket. So dont do it", you werent cool! (The sign didnt really say that verbatum but it said something like that).  There are so many stories I can tell about the awesomeness that was the Galloway Cruise, I dont know where to begin, so I'll just set the scene and we'll go from there.

The Start
Normally, the start of the big cruise would start at at one our houses. It seems like it was always mine. At one time there might be 10 cars all parked out in front of my folks house. Some with the super cool rims. Others with cracked plastic hub caps (mine), nicely painted trucks with "systems" that boom and just the regular Corolla that had front bumper damage. It didnt matter!

We would all pile up in my moms dining room, clear the table of doilies and candles and play some serious dominos! After about 5 good games or so, we would then pile out and crank up our sweet rides! Once we were all buckled up, the windows were rolled down and the music turned up, The Freak Love Train would set out!

The Route
If we started at my house we would've been on the north side of Town East Blvd and we would have headed south on Galloway towards Tripp Road. There is a 7-11 on the northwest corner of Town East and Galloway which would always be a stopping point to talk to friends and hopefully meet that little special lady that your heart so desired. About 2 miles south on Galloway is another 7-11 and Taco Bell. That is the other stopping point to talk to friends, get Muchaco and hopefully meet that special little lady that your heart so desires.

Town East 7-11
This was the stopping spot that was closer to where most of us lived, so we tried not to stop at this one very much because we didnt want to be spotted by parents or friends parents. We were rebels! Some of us had cigarettes and in order to be a real bad boy, you had to have a smoke lit up as you leaned on the back of your car, looking real cool and keeping an eye out for that special little lady that your heart so desired. So we didnt hang out there to long.

Tripp Road 7-11
This was the place to be. Behind it there was a huge parking lot, that was home to Hobby Lobby, Taco Bell, KFC and an Albertsons! So if you were going to be the cool dude leaning on the back of your car with a smoke, this was where you could. So much space, so many people. So cool!

This is where we would kick it and rap. Thats right! We would actually park our cars out in the parking lot behind the 7-11 and whoever it was that had the big bad sound system would throw on an instrumental beat and we would rap. Imagine if you will, the whitest of white kids and then the whitest of black kids standing around slinging lyrics at each other. We would rap about cruising between the two 7-11's trying to find girls. How dumb. Now that I am writing this, I know why we never found any girls. We were rapping in a parking lot behind 7-11.