KFC's Colonel Sanders

 

肯德基爷爷的真实故事

When I read last week that a majority of Americans ages 18 to 25 didn't know who Colonel Sanders was,I was shocked.

上周报上的一条消息让我感动非常震惊:大多数18到25岁的年轻人不知道桑德斯上校是谁。

According to USA Today,61% of respondents didn't know who the guy with the beard in the KFC logo was.

据《今日美国》报道，61%的受访者不知道肯德基商标上那个留着胡须的老人是谁。

For anyone who grew up in America in the second half of the 20th century, the Colonel was a true icon.

对任何一个在20世纪后半叶长大的美国人来说，桑德斯上校是一位真正的偶像。

You didn't need to be able to read to know who he was;you didn't even need to watch TV.

你不必识字，甚至不必去看电视，就可以知道他是谁。

Anyone who drove a mile in any direction would see his beaming,grandfatherly visage and white suit and know that Kentucky Fried Chicken could be found there.

往任何方向开车行驶一英里你就能看见他笑吟吟的如祖父般慈祥的脸，还有他的白色西装。

Maybe not everybody knew that he was the chain's founder or remembered his TV commercials from the '60s and '70s,when he talked about how each piece was dipped in an "egg warsh" before frying.

然后你就知道肯德基就在附近。也许并不是所有人都记得上世纪六七十年代的那个电视广告，在广告中他讲解了每块鸡肉在油炸前都在蛋浆中浸泡。

But, at least, they knew he was real.

但至少大家都知道确实有这么一个人。

Half of the young adults in the survey,which was ordered up by the chain,assumed that he was the creation of KFC,rather than the other way around.

可是，在这次由肯德基组织的调查中，有一半的年轻人却认为他是肯德基创造出来的虚拟标志而不是确有其人。

In fact, the Colonel wasn't just a fast-food baron who represented his company on TV.

事实上，桑德斯上校并不仅仅是一个在电视上代表肯德基的快餐业巨头，

Sanders was the living embodiment of what his food supposedly stood for.

他还是肯德基食物的活化身。

His white suit wasn't the invention of a marketing committee;

他的白色西装可不是市场营销部门的发明创造；

he wore it every day and was never seen in public for the last 20 years of his life in anything else.

他每天都穿着它，在他人生的最后20年里，他一直坚持在公开场合穿着它。

He was a failure who got fired from a dozen jobs before starting his restaurant,and then failed at that when he went out of business and found himself broke at the age of 65.

在自己开餐厅之前，他曾多次遭到解雇。随后在他65岁那年，他的餐厅歇业并宣布破产。

He drove around in a Cadillac with his face painted on the side before anybody knew who he was,pleading with the owners of run-down diners to use his recipe and give him a nickel commission on each chicken.

他开着车身印有他头像的凯迪拉克车到处兜售，那时人们还不知道他是谁。他恳请速食店的老板们用他的配方，每烹饪一只鸡给他五分钱的佣金。

He slept in the back of the car and made handshake deals.

晚上他就睡在车后座上，跟别人达成握手协议。

He was a lawyer who once assaulted his own client in court.

他做过律师，却在法庭上殴打自己的委托人。

He was indeed a Kentucky Colonel,an honorary title given to him by not one but two governors.

他是真实的肯塔基上校，并由两位州长授予他这个荣誉头衔。