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A little history......I grew up in Queens, NY in a lower middle class family who lived paycheck to paycheck as so many did in the 1950s and 60s. There was one wonderful luxury in life that was otherwise completely free of luxuries. Every Saturday evening OR Sunday morning my Father would go to the Bagel bakery and bring home a dozen Hot, fresh bagels and a copy of the New York Times. Life for me could not have been any better.
I left the New York City area in 1968 when I went to SUNY/Buffalo for my Junior year of college and it has been hard to find a good bagel since that time.(Aside: I have been told that the bagels in NYC are NOT the bagels of the 'old days.') The fact that bagels don't taste as good as I remember when my Father brought them home is sad but what is more distressing is that the Bagels of yesteryear were the best in the world...In other words, the EXPERIENCE was perfect. The bagel bakeries were producing and selling 100 bagels a minute...like clock work. It really was a bagel frenzy to watch all the bakers rushing to bake two or three varieties of bagels and the counter person, in a hat and torn, sweaty tee shirt collecting the money with the lines out the door.
About 10 years ago, I used to go to the Bruggers Bagels in Newton Plaza every Sunday and every Sunday the bagels became less brown indicating that they were under cooked (and tasted like it.) One Sunday, just like in the movies, I was mad as hell and wasn't going to take it any more. When I went to pay for my undercooked bagels, I told the young lady that the only thing Bruggers did was make bagels and the least that they could do is to cook them golden brown. Another young employee came over to me and said, "Sir, if we cooked the bagels more time, we couldn't sell as many."
Out of the mouths of babes comes truth!!!
Two weeks ago I went to the Brugger's in Saratoga Springs at 9 AM on Sunday morning and there was not a single bagel in the bins...NOT ONE...Why??? I assume that someone was not doing their job. This morning I again went to the same Brugger's and while there were bagels, there was no plain cream chese..NO PLAIN CREAM CHEESE ON SUNDAY MORNING?????????????? I told the young lady that several weeks ago there were no bagels on a Sunday morning and today there is no cream cheese and that the manager needs to be fired. She didn't care!
And THAT is the problem..
We used to do sooooooo many things well in our wonderful country and now we don't even do the simple things right..
For those of us that are passionate about what we do this is incredibly sad and I make one promise to my patients: I will do the very best dentistry that I am capable of doing and to take care of you the best I can.
My standards will never fall and I will do my best never to disappoint you. Some things are still as good today as they were in the old days.
