Fun Facts and Yellow Pants

You may or may not know this about me, but my entire existence is actually thanks to McDonald’s Restaurants.  No, really!  Let me explain.

My dad was this young McD’s employee, working to fund his flared pants and nights at the disco.  From an entry level position, he earned a spot in management and completed courses at Hamburger University in Chicago.  It’s a thing.  During these ‘good old days’ one of my dad’s work friends, Ron, was getting married and at the wedding, the bride introduced my dad to all the single ladies in attendance.  One of which, was Ron’s sister, Ellen, a bridesmaid, and coincidentally also a McDonald’s employee (at another location of course).  Anyway, they don’t hit it off in this speed dating type setting, because who does well with those rushed awkward intros anyway?  Fast forward to an undetermined time later, and they meet at another McD’s event (it’s the theme here, I’m just telling ya) and it’s love!  If it wasn’t for McDonald’s, my parents likely wouldn’t have ever met.

LOOK AT THESE CUTIES:

Career-wise, things were going well.  My dad opened up a brand new location at Main and Terminal, which he still loves to brag about (you’re so East Van, dad).  My parents got married, and then the year I was born, my dad got a huge promotion to Area Manager at head office.  That went well, and a few years later he changed positions to do consulting, which required a lot of travel.  Which totes would have been fine, except that my mom was pregnant with her second and I was probably a threenager.  So he tried that for a few years, but things were understandably tough given the circumstances.  A big huge life altering opportunity came about just in time, when McDonald’s gave him the incredible offer to become an Owner/Operator of his very own location!  My parents took a big leap and bought a franchise and our spot within the McFamily was established.  The restaurant was at Cambie and 8th and I spent a huge portion of my childhood there.  I can still remember the pride I had for the biz and the boredom I felt in that back office on pro-d days.  Over the years, they also acquired the Vancouver Public Library location, as well as Main and 29th. It was thanks to McDonald’s that my parents made a living and funded all those dance classes, piano lessons, a house to live in, etc.  And I always admired them for having their own business.  In classes, when the teacher would say, “You can’t make a living flipping burgers” I would roll my eyes (and sometimes speak up) because, HA!  You can.  I definitely got that entrepreneurial spirit from my dad and credit him and my mom for showing me that you can really carve your own career path if you work hard!

So, how did we even get to this long, rambling story?  Well, my dad posted a picture with Ronald McDonald at the RMH golf tournament and like a true fashionista, I looked at Ronald’s yellow pants and thought, “hey, I have those too!”  In a slightly more mustard colour (still fitting), I then realized that I still hadn’t featured them on the blog (now, any time I do, I’m sure you’ll forever think of them as the Ronald McDonald trousers) and thought this tale paired nicely with my ‘clown’ pants.

Photos by The August Diaries

Black Blouse from Club Monaco (similar here)
Mustard Trousers from Aritzia (here in black)
Black Pumps c/o Ted Baker (similar here)
Sunglasses from Bailey Nelson
Bracelet c/o Leah Alexandra