"Fact: Matt Thomas can inhale two magic burgers, large fries, and a large shake in the van in under five minutes." --- From Finding Our Way, Witmarsum 1993
The tennis team played its first season in the fall of 1992. It was also in the fall of 1992 that the Magic Wand tradition began. Like many traditions, it was born of necessity. Coach Jim Buller and I were talking the other day about the Magic Wand, and Jim said that when he started coaching tennis in 1992, there was no McDonald's in Churubusco, no other place to eat before making the 50 minute drive back to Goshen besides the Magic Wand. So it was the only choice.
And now, 16 years later, we make special team trips just to make sure that the tradition takes place every year.
It's a funny thing, why we love the Wand so much. It's a creepy place really, with clowns plastered all over the walls of the back room where we normally sit. The food is just regular diner quality food. The ice cream is your typical small-town ice cream shop fare, soft serve with Reese's Pieces and chocolate sauce (or at least the E.T. Sundae has that). But somehow it has made it's way into our hearts...
Maybe it's the donuts.
Yea, that is one really weird part of eating at the Wand with the tennis team. Everybody is ordering burgers, fries, shakes, and things of the dinner nature. But just about everybody also orders donuts, the cinnamon-y fresh out of the oven kind of donuts. It's like breakfast and dinner together. But it's not as weird as the clowns.
And yes, this really is a clown from the Magic Wand.
Some of my personal favorite Magic Wand memories...
- Evan Stahley ordering more than $20.00 worth of food for himself including a steak(?)...
- Alex Bullard taking food on the bus from the Wand and getting it thrown at him on the way back...
- Taking our Wayne Invitational individual trophies in with us and setting them on the table...
- The waitresses botching our orders every single year...
- Tator tots and those E.T. Sundaes...
- Never eating there after a loss...
- One year not having a match in Busco or Fort Wayne, so we checked out a van and went after practice just to keep tradition alive...
- I'm sure there will be plenty more to come!
If you read this, comment with your own thoughts on the Magic Wand meal and fun!