Saw this menu floating around, you know, the “Seafood Town Menu” thing. Looked pretty much like what you’d expect, loads of shrimp dishes, some crab options, grilled fish, fried stuff. Standard fare for a place with “seafood” in the name, right?
But it got me thinking, looking over the items and the prices listed. Things sure cost a bit now, don’t they? Made me remember a time when looking at a menu like that felt completely different. Not better or worse, just… different.
It actually brings back a pretty vivid memory, related to seafood joints like that.
There was this stretch, maybe must be over a decade ago now, after I’d just walked away from that awful logistics gig. You know the type, long hours, physically wrecking, pay was barely enough to cover rent. Anyway, I was scrambling for work, anything to make ends meet. My partner was holding down the fort with a part-time job, but money was seriously tight. We were watching every single dollar.
I recall there was this slightly upscale seafood place near where we lived back then. Not called “Seafood Town”, but had that same kind of vibe, probably a similar menu too. They had their menu displayed outside, all lit up in a case by the door. Shiny photos of lobster tails, platters piled high with shellfish, fancy fish names I couldn’t even pronounce.
Pressing My Nose Against the Glass, Figuratively
Sometimes, usually late in the evening when fewer people were around, we’d walk past that place. We wouldn’t go in, obviously. Couldn’t even dream of it. We’d just stand there for a minute, looking at the menu in the case. It became a weird little ritual. We’d point at the most expensive items, joke about ordering the whole menu if we ever hit the jackpot.
- It was like looking into another universe.
- One where people casually dropped fifty bucks on dinner without blinking.
- We usually went home to rice and whatever cheap veggies were on sale.
- Maybe some canned fish if we felt like celebrating something small.
It wasn’t about feeling sorry for ourselves, not really. It was just the reality of things back then. You see these menus, these places, and they just highlight the gap, you know? They represented a kind of comfort and ease that felt miles away from our own lives.
So why dredge all this up now?
Seeing that “Seafood Town Menu” just instantly brought that feeling back. That specific memory of standing outside the restaurant, feeling the cold, looking at those glossy pictures of food we couldn’t afford. It reminded me that a menu isn’t always just about food.
Things have changed for us since then, thankfully. Got back on my feet, found better work, things are more stable now. We can actually go out for seafood sometimes, sit down inside, order off a menu without getting heart palpitations. But I never forgot that feeling, looking in from the outside. Seeing that menu today, it was just a reminder of the journey, I guess. How perspective shifts. It’s just a list of seafood, yeah, but it’s tied up with a whole lot more for me.
