Carl Karcher's personality as his business began to take off is that of a man hell-bent on advancement and success and he never looks back nostalgically on the "good old days." He says at the end of the chapter "the road here was gravel, and now it is blacktop," demonstrating the pride he feels in bringing Anaheim into the modern era. Today, as things in the United States have gotten even further than Karcher could've believed, less people hold this non-sentimental viewpoint. At the time Karcher moved to Anaheim from his rural home in Ohio, the country was just beginning to enter the modern era of mass production, large monopolies, and prosperous businessmen. Karcher spent the earlier part of his life living in a more personalized and simple America that seemed boring to a man of his age. Today, however, we are born into this industrialized America and the idea of mom and pop stores and restaurants appear more wholesome to us compared to the cheap, mass-pleasing corporations that litter our country. People call the times before such industrialization "the good old days" because every meal was different at restaurants and people were customers not consumers. This is something Karcher did not predict about the creation of chain restaurants and the advancement of retail as a whole.