20100701_001.jpg, originally uploaded by Aldon.

I remember the first time I went to a Sonic. It was back in 2005 and I was attending DemocracyFest in Austin, TX. Kim and I were driving around trying to find some quick food and we saw a Sonic. Kim had read about Sonic on various food boards and had been told that the limeade was supposed to be really good. So, we stopped, had burgers and limeade and went on our way. Yes, the limeade was good and my recollection of the burgers was that they were pretty good as well. However, I didn’t leave Texas with any great craving for Sonic.

Recently, however, Sonic has announced that they are opening up stores here in Connecticut. The first one to open will be in Wallingford. It is scheduled to open on July 14th. Today, they sent out an email to people that have signed up for their mailing list, as well as posted information on Facebook and Twitter that they would be giving away T-shirts and other stuff at Villa Capri, just down the road from where the Sonic is going on.

After all the other stuff going on in my life recently, I figured I could stand a drive to something a little more low key. When I arrived at Villa Capri, I saw that there were signs for a blood drive. I walked around front and saw a couple tables with the Sonic of CT logo displayed. There were probably about thirty people that arrived for when the giveaway started. People picked up T-shirts, cups, Frisbees, balls and other assorted things. I ran into an old friend from social media circles and we talked a little bit about Sonic, their social media efforts.

I chatted with others that had shown up. One family was from Monroe. They were heading somewhere else, and Wallingford was on the way, so they stopped. Others spoke about having grown up in the south and about being excited that Sonic would soon be opening in Connecticut. So, now I have a Sonic T-Shirt and I’ll share the various Sonic toys with my kids.

There were around thirty people that showed up right at 11:30, with a pretty constant stream coming in for the next half hour. They limited people to a T-Shirt each, but several people talked the folks into giving them a second T-Shirt. When I left a little after noon, there were still some T-shirts left, but soon a message went up on Facebook that they had run out of shirts. Various people expressed disappointment that the limited supply of T-shirts went so quickly. It isn’t too surprising however. Sonic of CT is rapidly approaching 20,000 fans. I have to wonder what opening day will be like.