A Chip's Slip

 Welcome to another edition of Merriment March. This story maybe isn’t as funny as it is just plain gross. But those stories make us laugh too, right?

One day in the late 1970s, my sister Pat, some of her friends and I were in another town, looking for a place to eat. We stopped in at the Chip’s burger joint downtown.

Chip's was originally a Southern chain with headquarters in Rocky Mount, NC, with approximately 150 locations at one time. When Chip's filed for bankruptcy in the mid-1960s, the company sold its franchising rights to a company in Wisconsin. Currently I see only three stands still open in this state. 

The one we entered that day is long gone.

On that particular day, we were standing in line, waiting to order and could see into the kitchen where a worker was flipping burgers on the grill. With an errant slip of his wrist, a burger slid to the floor. He picked it up and tossed it in the trash.

That happens, right?

Next thing you know, someone wearing what looks like a manager’s uniform walks up to the kid at the grill. His body language did not demonstrate that he was praising the kid. Next thing you know, the kid reaches into the garbage, retrieves the burger and sets it back on the grill, all under the now approving eye of the manager.

The heat from the grill will kill anything, right?

We all looked at each other, then turned and exited the building without so much as a word. In defense of the Chips brand, I’ve been to the one in Merrill a few times since and thought the food was great. I try to not watch what goes on in the kitchen. It's also been a very long time since I've eaten a hamburger out anywhere. 

I was reminded of this story when I received this great ornament at a Christmas gift exchange. 

How many others have a story about Chip's burgers?