So I just “discovered” an A&W restaurant (fused at the pelvis with a Long John Silvers) is located a hop/skip/jump from my house.
It is the first A&W that I am conciously aware of seeing since moving from California in 97, so I of course had to stop and get a rootbeer float.
I went through the drive-through, which I now wish I hadn’t, because now I don’t know if they still serve up a frosty mug of suds for you like they did when I was a kid. As soon as the float hit my lips, all I could think about was how much I “wuved” A&W when I was a wee tot. I think it must have been one of those places that my parents used to bribe me with or something.
One thing that is bugging me (and I have had now luck with Google, or the A&W website) is that I can’t remember what those fuzzy little puffball creatures were. Does anyone else remember them? Part of their ad campaign in the early 80’s?
I distinctly remember having a small toy one for a very long time. He (I clearly remember his gender, but I have no idea how my childhood self deduced it) had plasic oogley eyes, and little cardboard feet stuck to the bottom of his orangish-red puff-ball body. They had little toes cut in them and if you peeled away a piece of backing, you could stick him to something with adhesive. I never could decide on the “right” place for him, so I carefully tried to keep the backing from peeling off for as long as humanly possible.
There was also a little ribbon attached to his butt that said, “I wuv A&W Rootbeer!”
I thought they were Wuzzles or Wuvvles, but I’ve had no luck finding anything with those.
So who’s memory is better than mine?
I really don’t know what to think about the fact that I can’t remember 3/4’s of my life, but I remember that I had a small little “male” puffball toy, and I always thought of him lovingly every time I put my little fist around a frosty mug of rootbeer. Wtf?
Certainly a close cousin to the creature I seek, but what I have in mind were trademarked toys that were given out by the restaurant. I keep coming back to “wuvvle” for some reason…
A&W fused at the hip with a Long John Silver’s…interesting image.
Makes sense though. A&W and Long John Silver’s were sold to Tricon last year. Tricon intends to maintain the A&W and LJS along side their existing KFC and Taco Bell brands.
Ok, gotpassword’s weeple fits the bill. googley eyes, cardboard toes, and a ribbon coming out of his butt. I don’t remember the antenae, but maybe the image is of a female specimine
I guess weeples weren’t particular about who’s slogan they had on that there butt-ribbon. I always thought they were strickly an A&W thing…
Thanks for putting to rest this most troublesome issue.
On a trip to Oregon a few years back we stopped at an A&W. The kids freaked. “There are A&W drive-ins? We thought they just made rootbeer.” They we were wide eyed the whole time.
I miss the Mama burgers. Never liked the Papas or Babys.
I work at an A&W in Mid-Michigan, with frosty mugs abound. The one I’m at is a sit down restaraunt with waitresses and all (I’m a waitress). We’ve got a drive through too, but not a drive up. Sometimes I wish I could wear rollerskates, but then I think about how I can barely walk and carry a tray at the same time, and my hopes are dashed. They just changed the ice cream that we put in the floats from hand-dipped to soft serve. It’s not the same as the nostalgic would like, but it’s not too bad.
I just discovered Homestar Runner! My boyfriend just showed me that clip last night. I couldn’t stop laughing.
gasp I didn’t even realize that was a HomeStar Runner reference.
These boards continually amaze me with their "small world"liness.
In a recent , HomeStar Runner appreciation thread (the first I’d seen since discovering The Dope) I divulged that one of guys who produce HomeStar Runner is a friend and former co-worker of mine.
I suppose that now I will start checking the boards even more often than I already do, just to see all of the strange ways that the threads I follow criss-cross eachother…like I needed further rationalization for my addiction.
The news of the switch from hand-scooped to soft-serve has left me a shell of my former self. I might even have to call in sick to work. It just isn’t the same…
Aw man, there was one of those drive-up restaurants in my hometown when I was growing up. Every now and then, my parents would buy the big one gallon “milk jug” of root beer there, and we’d bring it home. I swear the stuff in the 2-liters/cans isn’t the same, somehow. And I remember the weepuls/etc. as well.
