\"I read the news today...Oh boy!\"\n\nhttp://tinyurl.com/ylpza9a\n\nGlenn Bell Jr. died this past weekend at the tender age of 86...a long life of slingin' taco's to be sure:)\n\nI hadn't been to Taco Bell in almost 4 years, until today...I was moved to drop by Taco Bell in a sort of tribute to Glenn...one of the more prominent \"voices\" during my formative years:)\n\nThis Taco Bell in particular...store # 22354 is one of the more important spiritual touch points for paying tribute to Glenn...Scottsdale was the home of the first Taco Bell franchise (and the fact that Westaco, Inc's. HQ is in the same lot with this store makes them the defacto, if not actual, heir to the legacy of Glenn Bell:)\n\nI had my first Taco Bell taco in Corvallis, Oregon in 1970 when I hit college with a mighty crash:)\n\nIt was the second time I had ever had \"Mexican\" food..the first time was a week prior at a place called Taco Time in Eugene, Oregon.\n\nI was thrilled to find out about pizza, Italian food, pizza, Mexican, pizza, chinese take out, pizza...you get the drift...I was a country boy in the (for me) big city and I was going to find out all about life's pleasures...starting with taco's:)\n\nI was hooked on Taco Bell for a long time (a time that, coincidentally, was the time when I had very little money yet still needed to eat occasionally:)\n\nTaco Bell and the others filled the role of reasonably tasty maintenance eating for a long, long time...it was a truism in 1975 that no one...no one... could eat $5.00 worth of Taco Bell at a sitting, all by themselves:)\n\nCould.Not.Be. Done!\n\nIt may still be \"truish\" with the \"cheapo\" menu:)\n\nBut it has never really been very good:(\n\nThat was something I actually didn't discover until a trip to LA with a girlfriend (the same trip that I discovered In-n-Out:)...real Mexican food is very different than the goop that Glenn had sold me over the years...and very much better:)\n\nBut that didn't stop me from eating at Taco Bell...beggars can't be chooser's...and I was a beggar for a few years.\n\nToday was a nostalgia stop for me (as was my last visit to a Taco Bell a few years ago), as well as a tribute to Glenn:)\n\nI was more interested in watching my \"beefy burrito\" being made this time...the ladies in the kitchen pulled various levers in response to the computerized instructions for my order on the monitors overhead...the different shades of unidentifiable goop that cascaded onto the flour tortillas...the quick hand movements of their ritual wrapping of the burrito (I once dated a girl that worked at Taco Bell...she knew how to wrap a burrito...but that's another story:)\n\nIt still isn't very good food...but everyone at this location is sweet and pleasant, my order was correct, I was in severe need of a retox after a 6 miler this morning and I did manage to eat about 2/3 of the burrito...even with mulitple \"bags\" of hot sauce it was not very good:(\n\nBut that's not the fault of the sweet ladies behind the counter, nor of Westaco, nor of Glenn Bell...I think when Pepsi or YUM or whoever got their hands on Taco Bell...well...I'm not writing this to get on a rant about corporate agendas vs. quality:)\n\nI wanted to give them an extra star...just for being who they are and where they are, but I hear the spirit of Glenn Bell telling me \"don't do it, Donald...make them earn it\" :-)\n\nThat's all I need, another voice in my head...Thanks Glenn:)