Future Worlds circa 1975

In 1975, I needed 2 credits to have the minimum required to graduate and took a philosophy class called Future Worlds. One of the things that I remember from that class was the notion that chain stores and restaurants would facilitate a more mobile society. It would be easier to move around the country (or around the world), because we would feel comfortable shopping in the same stores, eating in the same restaurants, etc.

Of course, in 1975, we didn't see the coming of the world wide web, Amazon, Overstock, the Home Shopping Network–or they might have been here, I can't remember–and QVC, but I digress . . .

I've noticed since coming to Dallas, I haven't eaten at any national chain restaurants or shopped at any national chain retailers until it came time to find someone to get my hair cut and then I did rely on some amount of some level of comfort of going to the familiar and looked for an Aveda Salon near me and was pretty happy with the result. (Ever notice that is easier to go to a new Doctor than a new haircutter?)

And then yesterday, I went out for some fresh air and ended up on Market Street and got excited when I saw this familiar sign painted on the side of a building.



Even though it said Dallas, Houston and some other City in Texas I didn't recognize, the sign looked exactly like the one for the Cadillac Bar & Grill in San Francisco where the Mexican Food and drinks were Fantastic. I had to go inside and investigate.



The layout of the restaurant and the neon sign inside was also familiar, but when I asked, the man seating guests didn't know and never came back with an answer. All indications were that it was a Texas chain. I enjoyed a yummy spinach quesadilla anyway . . . and came home later to investigate. I found an old white paper from 1985 on a business site that talked about the owners' business philosophy. I think the original Cadillac Bar & Grill might have been in San Francisco, but there were others, in Seattle and in those in Texas. I also found elsewhere, in a story in the San Francisco Chronicle that the Cadillac Bar in San Francisco is gone, razed to make room for a Moscone Center expansion, some years ago.

But, before I discovered that sad news, I had a nice walk back from Market Street, past many other restaurants, some interesting architecture, a bakery and Wild Bill's Western Store.



And then I saw the log cabin in a large open square–Founder's square as it turned out–surrounded by sky scrapers. It was a little surreal.



It represents the cedar cabin built by John Neely Bryan, the founder of a settlement in 1841 which later became Dallas. I need to keep walking and taking a different path home. There's so much more for me to discover.