Rutherford Weekly

Page 2 - Rutherford Weekly 828-248-1408 www.rutherfordweekly.com Thursday, July 16-July 22, 2020 Gene Meade of Casar said he wanted to have a special birthday dinner for his wife Carol, in spite of the shuttering of some businesses due to COVID-19. The couple love the food at the Shelby Dairy Queen (DQ) but the restaurant dining room is closed due to COVID so Gene had to make some adjustments. Two week before Carol's June 12 birthday, Gene started planning a special way to surprise his wife of nearly 56 years and have a good dinner and lots of fun. Although the couple does most of their shopping together, Gene said had to go shopping alone in order to surprise his wife on her birthday. He bought a tablecloth, red and white ribbons, balloons, birthday letters and big sheets of paper to make birthday signs. "I started making a lawn mower trailer into a pandemic diner," he said. He added pipes, table, chairs, ribbons, red carpet to walk onto trailer. He even added a CD player for dinner music and gathered fl owers from the couple's lawn for a nice fl ower vase. "Two days before Carol's birthday, she knew I was up to something unusual, so I had to tell her what was up." Gene began. "I told her that we were going to have a birthday dinner at the Shelby DQ on this contraption,"Gene said. But she wasn't as excited. She told her husband people would think he was crazy and he'd have to go to the party alone. "A few hours later she came out and said, that it might be fun," Gene said. They loaded up the party supplies and put the ice cream in a cooler. Gene even cleaned up their 1994 T-Bird that has a trailer hitch and they hooked the diner to the trailer. Although the car usually starts right off, Gene said on Carol's birthday it took at least fi ve minutes to start. Finally they began the drive from Casar to Shelby for her 77th birthday celebration. The couple arrived at the DQ around 6:30 pm and planned to stay about an hour. After going through the drive through and ordering their food, the Meades told the DQ staff about the birthday plan. The staff said it would be fi ne. As Gene was preparing the makeshift diner outdoors, some DQ staff members came out with balloons and a gift card for Carole's birthday. "After getting everything ready to eat, we had car horns blowing, folks came to our diner to talk and make pictures of this unusual contraption with us in our dinner chairs. We turned the music down to chat with the folks," Gene said. A DQ customer presented the couple a $20 gift card. "She said she had never seen anything like this," Gene said. "We had many comments, people got out of their car to see us up close, we enjoyed all of the visitors and the dinner," Gene said of their 90 minute dinner. "Carol met a cousin that she hadn't seen in 40 years, they had a nice reunion," Gene continued. "We had a fantastic evening, Carol and I loved it," Gene, 80, said. "We will be returning to the Shelby DQ for another dinner real soon, without the Pandemic Diner contraption behind the old T-Bird." The couple is going to prepare a DVD slideshow for others to see. They will celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary on August 1. An usual birthday party in an unusual pandemic Couple celebrates at DQ with makeshift dining room Article Provided By: Jean Gordon Carol and Gene Meade. If you're unable to get your regular copy of Rutherford Weekly, view it online at rutherfordweekly.com rutherfordweekly.com Our Our Digital Edition Digital Edition is is FREE! FREE! To receive a copy of each week's publication via email, To receive a copy of each week's publication via email, click on click on "subscribe to our weekly digital edition" "subscribe to our weekly digital edition" It's That Simple! It's That Simple! Our Online Version Same As The Printed Copy! Don't Miss This Week's Don't Miss This Week's RUTHERFORD RUTHERFORD WEEKLY WEEKLY ©Community First Media Community First Media www.mooresautos.com 345 South Broadway, Forest City 828-245-8067 IN HOUSE FINANCING IN HOUSE FINANCING M O O RE ' S AUTO S ALES OVER 60 OVER 60 UNITS IN UNITS IN STOCK STOCK OVER 60 OVER 60 UNITS IN UNITS IN STOCK STOCK $ 11,975 11,975 2007 TOYOTA 2007 TOYOTA SEQUOIA SEQUOIA 3rd row seat $ 7,500 7,500 2007 2007 NISSAN NISSAN MURANO MURANO Leather interior $ 7,975 7,975 2008 FORD 2008 FORD FOCUS FOCUS Only 38,000 miles $ 15,800 15,800 2010 GMC 2010 GMC YUKON YUKON DENALI DENALI 3rd row seat $ 10,975 10,975 2011 SUBARU 2011 SUBARU TRIBECA TRIBECA Xtra clean $ 18,975 18,975 2015 JEEP 2015 JEEP WRANGLER WRANGLER Only 73,000 miles $ 18,500 18,500 2016 BUICK 2016 BUICK ENCLAVE ENCLAVE Fully loaded $ 17,500 17,500 2012 2012 TOYOTA TOYOTA TACOMA TACOMA Only 64,000 miles $ 14,500 14,500 2015 2015 TOYOTA TOYOTA RAV 4 RAV 4 Limited edition

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