020841 Fast-Food Blast From Past

To some, the retro McDonald's that opened three weeks ago at Five Points in south Bethlehem is kitsch - - a garish, neon-illuminated Disneyland of a restaurant.

But to lovers of Americana, it evokes with wholesale enthusiasm the pop culture of the 1950s -- rocket motels, poodle skirts and black-and-white television episodes of ''Father Knows Best.''

Sure, it's only a McDonald's, but some say it's the coolest one this side of Des Plaines, Ill., site of the McDonald's museum that was the inspiration for the Bethlehem restaurant.

''They went above and beyond the call of duty to build a really cool place because they listened to the community,'' said John Saraceno, owner of Saraceno Design in south Bethlehem. ''If you're going to be here, then make it interesting.''

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