Creatively Looking at My Second Interview...

The other day in class we had a chance to look at our interviews closer, with a more creative purpose behind it. This turned into being writing poetry by using the words and phrases our person said throughout the interview. I had an emotional interview with my mom after hearing why the Beef Barn is so important to her. I never realized the family connections that she had, which were connections made before her kids, before her husband, but when she was also a kid.
So for this poem, to clarify, it is all in my mom's words and her perspective.
 

Because it Reminds Me of My Mom

My earliest remembrance of the Beef Barn is of going there with my mom and getting a coffee shake.

No where else can make a coffee shake better than the Beef Barn.

It reminds me of my mom.

It reminds me of my memories with her.

My mom loved coffee shakes, so I loved coffee shakes....

She got me hooked.

I introduced my kids to coffee shakes by bringing them to the Beef Barn because it was like sharing a moment with my mom, with her future grandchildren, that she was never able to do.

Granted... none of you guys liked them when you were little-

But now, still to this day, my son cannot go into Beef Barn and not order a shake.

It's community.

It's family.

I go back for the good food,

the service,

the memories.

A coffee shake at the Beef Barn is more than a shake...

It's remembering those short, what seemed like insignificant moments, with my mother.

Every time I order a coffee shake, I feel like I'm sharing that moment with her.

Where I'm Going!

After meeting with my professor, we organized my final paper by how we wanted it to flow. She grabbed a notecard and a pen and simplified everything that I was trying to say. This led to these helpful cards that relieved my stress over this final paper! :) Thanks Dr. Cook!


 





 Here we have the two main topics of my paper. I will be focusing on the cell phone use and how people are distracted at restaurants, and how the Beef Barn is a locally, family owned restaurant in my community. This diagram just breaks down that one main topic into different parts of it, including aspects like my interview with Ashley, one of the waitresses there, and some secondary sources.

This next diagram is what instantly made me feel ready to write this paper! I was very stressed out about how weeks and weeks of research, observing, interviewing, etc on this one little place could turn into an analytical, eye opening, yet emotional piece of writing that I have connected to. That's where this arrow flowing diagram comes in! My goal for the paper is to go full circle. I will start off personal, and end personal. I want to start off with why I'm writing this and what it means to me. Then after using my interviews, sources, and blog posts, I will explain the situation where people are willingly going to a small, family restaurant yet being so distracted!! Bringing it back to a more personal ending, I chose to comment a bit on how these findings will impact me, but not in a depressing, this is what the world is coming to, kind of view. I want to relate it back so that the reader can see me sitting at home with my little family, eating a home cooked meal together, without any distractions of cell phones, tablets, ipods, etc.

Getting over the fear of....

The First Interview!!!

Ahh. Okay, I made it out alive, and that isn't a comment about my interviewee, who was super nice! I think for all of us, the thought of interviewing someone on a topic that we have put so much time into is a little scary! What happens if they don't show up for the interview, what happens if they don't talk, what happens if it doesn't record, what happens if they don't even address the topics you want your paper to be about!?! I can happily say that my first interview extinguished all those fears and I'm excited to use part of the interview in my paper.

I interviewed a current waitress at the Beef Barn, Ashley, who also went to the same high school as me! I was especially excited to interview her for this paper, because we live in the same town, so the Beef Barn is part of her local community too. I felt more comfortable by knowing who I was meeting before hand, and the fact that we met at Dunkin' Donuts was a win-win for me! :)

I learned a lot about myself through this interview... the biggest being I hate the way my voice sounds after hearing it recorded! After getting over hearing that, and some awkward pauses that went on a little too long, I began seeing some patterns with my questions. I had a tendency to go back to topics we already discussed after a long and awkward pause. In some cases, I introduced new questions related back to what she had replied with, but others began with "ummmm..... soooo let's go back to this"! I also caught myself asking some closed questions (a little too late... but I'm glad I know to watch out for that now!) to which she answered a yes or no. This was not her fault for not expanding, because she did exactly what I had asked her to do, just answer my questions. I also recognized that it took a little time to get going with the questioning and answering, which was expected! We both are somewhat shy and more reserved, so I had a feeling the dialog would be more back and forth of us talking, than her going off on one of my topics for a couple minutes. It could also be that we are both the same age, 18, and younger adults are known to expand or talk less during interviews like these, as my professor warned.

Overall though, I could not thank Ashley enough for meeting with me! We talked a lot about her experiences with customers at her tables using their cell phones, and the type of people she normally serves at this local, family restaurant. She addressed the two biggest things my paper will be about, and her first hand knowledge will be a key asset to my final paper on the Beef Barn!

Update...

         Hey guys! For those of you who are wondering where this blog about the Beef Barn is actually going, I'm here to update you all. First of all, after doing some observations that I posed, I am starting to get an idea of where I want my final project to go. The more I go back to the Beef Barn and every time I'm out at restaurants, I can't help but notice the cell phone problem. For example, I was at Panera Bread last night and there was a family sitting at the table next to us... the older gentleman was eating his food, the older woman was on her cell phone, the middle aged woman was reading a book, with her tablet on the table, and the other middle aged woman had headphones in with a tablet! My boyfriend and I was shocked to see this, and hear no conversation occur between any of them! This issue is very interesting to me, and it will be a prominent aspect to my paper. The other main topic I've been looking into is local businesses. I really want to point out the fact that independent restaurants are out there, trying to survive surrounded by all the franchised places. It's important to point out when locally owned restaurants give back to their community! With Small Business Day coming up, I believe it's mid-November, it reminds us all to try and spend our money at local and independently owned small business because they are more likely to give back and use the money compared to giving it to millionaires who own a whole fast food franchise. That will be my goal to all of you... after researching the difficulties small businesses, specifically restaurants, encounter, go out and have dinner at a local place in your home town! Or instead of going to Walmart, try the little place down the road who grows their own produce.
         As for my final paper, my two points will be the discovery of this push and pull relationship. We care about locally, family owned restaurants and bring our family and friends with us to share a meal, yet we ignore them with our cell phones, tablets, laptops, etc. Later on I will post a picture of something called a "mind map" which will demonstrate where I want to go, but in pictures and colors and multiple "stems" branching off...

Reactions to My Second Observations...

I had similar reactions to my second set of observations as my first. In my eyes, this is a good thing because I’m focusing on two topics within studying Beef Barn, that I would like to see consistent results with. One topic is one that continues to disturb me everywhere I go! It is crazy watching people use their cell phones EVERYWHERE! It’s disturbing watching people go out to eat to enjoy their meal with good company-but only look at their phone the entire time. This time there was a group of younger people and a group of older people, which made it clear where the problem is. The younger generations are getting more and more addicted to technology, specifically cell phones. It’s sad when they do not feel comfortable talking face to face to people anymore, or not even feel comfortable talking on the phone because they are so used to just texting people, barely using full sentences. Something that intrigued me relates back to my second main topic I’m interested in, which is the trend behind different food cultures. It’s so interesting that there are trends between each culture. For example, relating back to food, people can study the average time people eat their meals, the amount of meals per day people eat, how large those meals are, etc. It intrigued me that by visiting the site at 4 pm, I could assume that it wouldn’t be the dinner rush yet and it would be busier when I left. I also predicted maybe there would be people hanging out from school, because the high school is up the road from the Beef Barn. It’s cool that most Americans have predicted times they eat, and other cultures may have different predicted times they usually eat. You can learn a lot about a culture by observing the amount of people who eat at a certain time. It surprised me that no one really cared what I was doing. I didn’t have any situations where people were interested in what I was writing about as I looked around. I know if I was eating there and saw someone with a notebook writing stuff, I’d be interested in what they were doing. Maybe I’m just more suspicious than others? :) Overall, I’m glad I noticed the same trends as my last observations.

What the Internet Has to Say About the Beef Barn....

               Today, I went out to the internet to make some observations. I learned the Beef Barn has their own website (http://www.thebeefbarn.com/). These days, the internet can be one of the most helpful sources, so I was excited to see what history, interesting facts, or contact information I could find on their website. My first reaction was disappointment… you can tell that they created it years ago, and haven’t kept up with it. Although it is surprising in today’s technologically advanced society, it represents the Beef Barn. They are a local family restaurant, and they probably don’t feel the need to have a confusing and overwhelming website. There’s also no format to the pages. Maybe it’s just my OCD, but one tab has different fonts from another, or on one page all the pictures are centered going down the page but on another they’re 2 by 2 on the left and right. The nice thing about their website is that they do have pictures! This is where I found the first picture I posted of the front of the Beef Barn. They included pictures of the seating, as well, which is the best part! You can tell from the few things they have, they want to show off their unique dining. After going directly to their site, I wanted to find another related website. I found one on Facebook. Who knew… they would have a Facebook page? Here it is if you want to check it out, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Beef-Barn/271246942919878?nr=115184751838221, but it reminds me of their website but with no pictures! It is strictly informative. It gives us the phone number, links to the website, and their address. It’s cool to look at it from Facebook, because it tells me how many people have “checked in” aka said they were at the Beef Barn, and some people even take a picture and tag themselves as “at the Beef Barn” which comes up on this page. Even though for both these sites, I’m judging their lack of a website, I understand why. The Beef Barn isn’t a franchise that is all over the web, people hear about it by word of mouth and they’ve been doing it like that for years. It’s helpful to have their website and a page of Facebook so that people can easily look up their menu, address, phone number, etc. but the people who know about it probably wouldn’t need to look up their website. I can observe a lot about their establishment, from a couple links. Their priority is not networking their restaurant or trying to get “100 likes” on Facebook. They guarantee to make good food in a small, local place that is almost like a “hole in the wall” that people only really hear about from other people. I think the message is clear from their website that they are not worried about followers or attention from the web, because their focus is on the people coming into their restaurant and getting them to come back. At first, I was surprised how little of a website they had, but then I remembered what kind of restaurant it is. You will just have to go there to experience what the Beef Barn is all about, instead of just reading and looking online about it. More people should trust the web less and just go out there and experience the new places, regardless of what the web has to say!

Update on a Previous Post!

I have been thinking more about my post dealing with my different positions. I’ve gotten some interesting feedback, which has made me rethink what I had originally posted, specifically about being objective. Initially I said that I would be able to look at the place and people objectively, because I have acknowledged some of the opinions I have that would make me think biased. Just because I listed out some personal perspectives I have, doesn’t mean I will be able to ignore them. I will never be able to push past them to get a completely objective observation. As my professor said, it’s impossible to be totally objective. One of the big focuses of my study is observing humans, and I can’t be 100% subjective while analyzing my own species. I can try looking at the establishment as an outsider, so I get an overall view of the Beef Barn, but I can’t completely remove myself from the culture and space to observe objectively. I’m really glad my professor cleared this up, and it inspired me to think further about it. By getting a variety of opinions, it makes my overall observation more subjective- but still not entirely objective! Other people have different experiences, pasts, families, opinions, etc. so by combining their perspectives with mine, I’ll get a nice overall sense of the Beef Barn and the people there. In the end, I’m still going to look at the Beef Barn as a local, hometown favorite filled with personal memories. It helps that I have a strong personal connection with this place, because I can influence others to come and try their food! I think that’s how they’ve become popular and successful, by word of mouth. I’ve never seen any publicity or advertisements about it, so people are definitely talking about it! As for the people who are still curious about the name… You’ll just have to come to check it out yourselves! Going there is, in my opinion, a lot better than going to a franchise chain restaurant.  Here, you get personalized, family-like service, with very popular favorites on the menu, which are cooked to order. The design and décor gets people talking about the interesting, faded and yellow old newspaper articles and ads under the glass topped booths, or the interesting assortment of seating you can pick from. There’s something unique about eating in a barn shaped restaurant, and with a name like the Beef Barn, I can guarantee their meat sandwiches will have you coming back for more! Unless you’re like me, who can’t say no to a crispy yet gooey grilled cheese! Mmmm…