MacDonalds

According to Wikipedia, the first MacDonalds in England opened its doors in November 1974. As far as I can remember, this fact completely passed me by. The first MacDonalds in Hong Kong opened in January 1975, just a month before my family moved there. This did not pass me by and I rapidly became a big fan.

There are three things that I always remember about MacDonalds from that time:

1. In addition to the traditional ice cream flavours - vanilla, strawberry and chocolate - you could also get mango, which I loved.
2. During certain promotional periods, if you went into a MacDonalds and were able to say "two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun" in less than four seconds you could get a free burger. (I could and still can.)
3. When we went on holiday to Japan, they pronounced MacDonalds as "Macoodoneldo". I still sing the jingle to my brother, sometimes.

However, in 1988, I boycotted MacDonalds. Although this was made easier by the fact that I'd recently become vegetarian, it was MacDonalds' corporate behaviour - e.g. around the "McLibel" affair - that led me to take my small and ineffectual stand against them. Of course, MacDonalds were simply ahead of their time: these days almost all the big organisations behave just as unethically.

Anyway, since 1988, I have only been into MacDonalds a handful of times, mainly to collect my children from parties that have been held in their restaurants, but once, in about 1994, I went in with a friend of mine and bought a milkshake. (I always loved their milkshakes: so thick that sucking them through a straw made you feel your face might implode.)

Lately, I've been wondering if there's any point in maintaining this personal boycott, which pretty much everyone I know is completely unaware of. Not that I particularly fancy a MacDonalds, just that I can't see they're much worse than anyone else. (I will, however, be sticking to my boycott of Nestlé, whose past actions are beyond forgiveness.)