Friday, October 14, 2011

Ode to Timmy

For my non-Canadian readers, Tim Horton's is one of our national treasures. The coffee and doughnut chain was founded in 1964 by hockey player Tim Horton who unfortunately died in a car crash ten years later. He never saw just how successful his company would become, i.e., the largest fast food chain in the country. Nowadays you can spot a Timmy's from Kelowna to Kandahar.

Oh, it's more than coffee and doughnuts, my friends. It's a mecca for caffeine-starved, carb-craving Canucks, especially in the winter when we're heading out with a carload of kids to a pre-dawn hockey practice or shuffling off to work in the morning.

We are a loyal nation. We all worship at the altar of Timmy's. Ask any Canadian what "roll up the rim to win" means and he or she can tell you. We all roll up our rims and hope for the big one. Actually, a few years ago, two local families got into a heated battle. One girl found a winning coffee cup in the garbage can at her primary school. She couldn't figure out how to roll up the rim, so she asked an older girl to help her. Turns out the prize under the rim was a car worth $32,000. The older girl's family insisted they deserved the prize. The younger girl's family said something along the lines of "Nuh uh, you don't!

Tim Hortons, like a good mom, said they were not going to get involved and that they had to work things out themselves. Then a lawyer called for a DNA test to be done on the cup. (I swear I'm not making this up. This happened in a community close to my cottage.) The lawyer claimed that his unnamed client had thrown out the cup but was the rightful owner of the prize. Seriously?

What do you think is fair? Who do you think got the car?

Like the mom who heard a lamp crash in the rec room and stomps downstairs to investigate, Tim Hortons reversed their decision to get involved and announced they would award the prize to the younger girl who first found the cup. Yay! Tim Bits for everyone!

On a long, mind-numbing drive along the 401 from Montreal to Toronto, the regular sight of a Timmy's at the end of the exit ramp can lift one's spirits to the point where you can almost hear the celestial choir's voices raised in a big old Hallelujah. And that quick stop to pick up a large double double and a box of Tim Bits will inevitably end with the raised hand of the server (no baristas here) and the benediction "have a nice day." And you will. Oh yes, you will.

Now have a listen to this guy's experience.

11 comments:

Linda G. said...

ROF,L! That was hilarious. Only now I want a donut.

Yutha said...

I was in our local Timmy's one morning and as each customer came in, the clerk had to tell them they had no coffee that day (they had no water). The look on the customer's faces was priceless. First they'd laugh, then it would register that the clerk was not kidding, then they'd walk out perplexed, trying to figure out how, just HOW would they get through the day with no Timmy's! Too funny. That being said, I too am addicted.

Colleen said...

Thanks for posting that Pam. I've heard it before and still laughed out loud!

Tim Hortons recently had a contest where you entered your story and could win a prize. http://www.everycup.ca/ I wonder if that fellow entered his story?

nightsmusic said...

I LOVE sour cream glazed timbits. I hardly ever buy them because of course, I need the big box and they're gone in a matter of minutes.

A Novel Woman said...

Yutha, we have no water at the moment, and I had to make coffee with bottled water this morning. Doug thought I was nuts. Did you ever find the Timmy's card I inadvertantly lost in your car?

Hands up those of you who are now hankering for a Tim Bit?

Colleen, I'm guessing they want a different kind of story over at Timmy's not one where the clerk calls the cops on the customer! So funny.

Yutha said...

Doug thought you were nuts? Has he not seen you in caffeine withdrawal?? And no, the Tim's card is lost in the bowels of my car. No worries....there wasn't much left on it since we used it on our road trip!

Now I'm craving old fashioned glazed Timbits. Thanks.

A Novel Woman said...

I know, right? It's like a light switch that's suddenly turned on.

Debby said...

Did Yutha find a Timmy's card? LOL.

There's a song:

It's like a lost and found in a border town, askin' about a ring, they just look at you like you've lost your mind, say they haven't seen a thing...

For the record: If you ever lose a Timmy's card in MY car, I won't be able to find it either. No matter how hard I look. Even if I look reeeeeealy hard for it.

A Novel Woman said...

The Timmy's card is like a credit card. You load up $50 on it, prepaid, and then you use it until it's empty. I went to grab it in Yutha's car, and instead managed to slide it deep into a slot in the console. I almost had the corner of it, then it disappeared.

I blame the automotive engineers for their obvious design flaw.

Yutha said...

Debby, remind me not to lose a Tim's card in your car. As for the one I lost in my car (well, the one my SISTER lost) I had actually misplaced it long ago, then found it right before our road trip. We used it (a LOT) then put it in the "ashtray". It started to slide into this itty bitty slot above when Pam tried to rescue it, pushed it in by accident and my car ate it. Hope its enjoying all the coffee and Timbits it can eat.

A Novel Woman said...

I swear by my Tim Bits that the car SUCKED the card right out of my hands.