Thursday, July 2, 2009

Memories: Book It!

While we were in Montana we ate at Pizza Hut for lunch one day and as we walked up I could smell Elementary School.
Before you get all excited that my Elementary School served Pizza Hut for lunch you should know that it had nothing to do with school and everything to do with my BookIt button. Also you should know that only the Pizza Hut building has that smell – it’s not the same if the pizza just shows up at your door.
I don’t remember the details of the program, just that if we read a certain amount (minutes? Books? Pages?) we earned a hardcore plastic sticker. Which was made out of the same stuff as stick-on earrings…..not that I used my BookIt stickers as earrings or anything….geez, just how big a dork do you think I am? We could put the sticker on our super-sweet BookIt button and wear it around so people knew how cool we were. Not that I wore my BookIt button on my backpack every single year because I thought it was cool….just how big a dork do you think I am?  And once we earned enough stickers we got a Free Personal Pan Pizza from Pizza Hut! Say “personal pan pizza from pizza hut” 10 times fast.
You should know that it was really free. Not “Free*”
My mom faithfully took us to get our Free (not “free*”) pizzas every single time we earned them.  She is cool like that.
Usually the 15 minute drive to the nearest Pizza Hut (WAY down by Macey’s in Orem) also included a trip to the small pet store that was part of the same strip mall. I hate the smell of that pet store. I hate it with a firey passion.  I hate the birds (and vaguely remember a story of a kid that was eaten bitten by some horribly large bird) because they are often loose in the store and that freaks me out. A lot.
I think my little brother liked the pet store and always wanted to stay there longer than I did.  I still hate Pet Stores because of the smell.
BookIt gave me every single one of my “store-bought-pizza” experiences until I was like 17 at which point my friends FORCED me to pick up the phone and order pizza for the first time in my life. I was fairly certain the cops were going to come and take me to jail because I thought you had to be at least 18 to order pizza over the phone.
I didn’t do it again until my roommate worked at Papa John’s and assured me it was legal for me to order pizza and stuck the phone up to my ear again forcing me to overcome my fear of ordering pizza.
I honestly think I didn’t know people really ordered pizza from those places until I became “people” and went through my “Friday is pizza night!” phase with Josh.  My empty bank account taught me the same thing my mom did when I was young.
Pizza tastes better homemade.
Still a Pizza Hut building smells like books to me.

3 comments:

  1. I remember earning a few of those personal pizzas myself. Boy, did I think I was cool. Now I know you're cool, too!

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  2. You're so funny, Amy!

    I think the only person in my family who got to take advantage of the book it program was my little sister. Everyone else missed it.

    I was in grade 10 when we moved down to Utah and I was jealous. :)

    We make pizza more often than not, but sometimes Hot'n'Ready is SOOO nice. And now that it's summer here, we always go through the debate of whether it's more expensive to eat out or cool down the house after using the oven. Or if it's even worth it to be that hot, even if it doesn't cost that much to cool down.

    I will admit that we ordered pizza last night. I wasn't about to make dinner when Andrew came home (I was DEAD almost, I think...I went to bed at 7) so he ordered, which is hard on the budget...but it was such a nice break!

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  3. Wait a sec. You ordered pizza on the phone? And didn't get arrested? Did they bring it to your door?


    You're braver than I ever knew!

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