Free Dinner...Sort Of

When I first went away to college, I found that my funds were...lacking.  Somehow, I had thought that the little bit of money I had earned at my summer job would pay for gas, food and all of my social engagements.  Who knew that milk was so expensive? Or that toilet paper is consumed at such an alarming rate?

My friend Cynthia and I had to become creative with our finances very quickly if we occasionally wanted to see the outside of our dorm rooms.  One day, we struck upon "free" entertainment.  We still had to pay for gas, but otherwise, we could go out for several hours and spend nada.

We would go up to our local Books-A-Million to read books, take quizzes and watch parents melt down almost as quickly as their children were.  You could always tell when a parent wanted to be at the bookstore and the child wanted to be anywhere but.  It was quite humorous and I counted my blessings that I could walk into such a store, find a book, sit down and read without interruption.  I wonder if college students look at me with pity now and count their blessings.  However, now, I am glad that I have a little one to share my love of books with and I (most of the time) wouldn't trade the quick, quiet trips to a bookstore or library for the wonder I am beginning to see on my little boy's face when we read a new story.

Anyway, back to free dinner.  In the parking lot of Books-A-Million was an O'Charley's.  For those of you who don't know what O'Charley's is, it is basically like a Bennigan's or Chili's.  When you are seated at O'Charley's, they give you complementary rolls, butter and water.  Cynthia and I quickly figured out that if we asked for lemons and used the sugar on the table, we could make lemonade for ourselves.  Between the lemonade and rolls, we had a (free!) poor man's dinner.  It wasn't the most nutritious or filling meal we could have found, but it agreed with our wallets.  Therefore, we had a lot of roll and lemonade dinners.  We went there enough that the servers finally just began bringing us lemons and refilled our rolls, knowing that we were ordering on a limited budget.

Although I am glad that I can afford better meals than those early college O'Charley's ones, there is something to be said for the ingenuity of college freshmen.  Those days were easier in a way, but again, I wouldn't trade this life for my former one.