The last notes of the fight song rang out as the crowd began spilling onto the field. The football players lined up to shake hands, one side dejected and the other side thrilled. I stood in the band section among my fellow trumpet players, ready to play our alma mater (which went to the tune of \u201cO Christmas Tree\u201d for some unknown reason). The first football game of my freshman year had come to an end, and after looking forward to being in the high school marching band for all of middle school, I was not disappointed. Little did I know, the evening wasn\u2019t over; we were headed to Whataburger.<\/p>\n
For four years, this is what my fall Friday nights regularly looked like. Sometimes our team won; usually our team lost. Regardless of the final score, one thing remained consistent: the post-game party at Whataburger.<\/p>\n
Before you read any further, let\u2019s get a few things straight: first, I am from Texas. Second, I really like Whataburger. When I visit home, I almost always end up there at some point. But third \u2014 and I\u2019m preparing myself for the death threats that are sure to come \u2014 it\u2019s a pretty average fast food restaurant.<\/p>\n
I like it a lot. Really, I do! But I think that most of my fondness for the iconic orange and white restaurant comes from the association it has with fun memories. I spent my high school years in a town with a population of less than 4,000 people, so there wasn\u2019t much to do. We had to drive for 30 minutes to get to the nearest movie theater or bowling alley, and the local skating rink wasn\u2019t that exciting after you turned 13. So where did we go? You guessed it \u2014 Whataburger.<\/p>\n
Since coming to school in Arkansas, I\u2019ve been surprised to see how many Texans try to force their beloved restaurant onto their non-Texan friends. In some opinions, it seems like a person just hasn\u2019t experienced culinary greatness until they try a honey butter chicken biscuit, and how dare someone claim that any ketchup is better than Whataburger Fancy Ketchup! But friends, here\u2019s the thing: to someone who didn\u2019t grow up with it, Whataburger is most likely just another fast food restaurant.<\/p>\n
So, to my fellow students from the Lone Star State: not everyone loves Whataburger. It holds a special place in our hearts, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with that. But your roommate from Ohio probably isn\u2019t going to cry tears of joy when they try it for the first time, just like you may not be overly impressed by Cincinnati\u2019s Skyline Chili.<\/p>\n
To those not from Texas: I\u2019m sorry that we tend to be a bit obnoxious. Be patient with us, and if you do get the chance to eat Whataburger, I suggest the honey barbecue chicken strip sandwich \u2014 it\u2019s a little more interesting than a cheeseburger.<\/p>\n
And to my friends from California: go back to the top of this column and replace every \u201cWhataburger\u201d with \u201cIn-N-Out.\u201d You need to hear this, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The last notes of the fight song rang out as the crowd began spilling onto the field. The football players lined up to shake hands, one side dejected and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15102,"featured_media":11458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}