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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Back in the 50's

Friday nights have been date night for us for a long time, but times change and now when GRANDson Gavin spends the night, we usually end up at Steak and Shake.




His current fav is their Chili Mac 4 Ways... spaghetti, chili, cheese and oyster crackers on top, hey don't knock it unless you've tried it! :-) 





When his brother was little, we lived in Texas and Jackson spent Friday nights too. He loved to go to Luby's, a cafeteria with a huge selection of made from scratch homestyle food. His meal was always the same, fried chicken leg, blue jello, roll and a pickle!




Jerry and I like to go to the hole in the wall places, the Mom and Pop's in town that have waitresses that call you "Honey" or "Sweetie." One of those places is Smokin' Joe's. BBQ of course and they have daily specials on the chalkboard when you come in. Their list of sides are southern favorites like mac and cheese, fried okra or pinto beans, ....right up my alley!



Our waitress last Saturday called everyone "Kids" as she waited on us like Mom used to, making sure we had plenty of everything we needed to make our meal delicious. "Need anything kids?" "How about some pie kids?" She even reminded us to "Drive safe kids!"  It used to be the old Wrangler Drive-In years ago when we lived here back in the 80's. Drive-in's were beginning to fade away then, only a few A&W's left, but small town America still loved them so the good ones lived on.

In our town the one remaining is Susie Q, a blast from the past, stuck in the 50's, won't ever change drive-in. They serve the best homemade burgers and fries, tenderloin sandwiches, chili cheese fries, malts to die for and homemade fried pies. It's only open from March-November, they take a little winter break when it's just too dang cold to set and eat in your car!



Every now and then we take our GRANDS to the places that we love, trying to give them a taste of hometown America. Going back to the 50's when life was pretty simple, no sushi on the menus, real ice cream in the shakes and the only diet thing on the menus are the sodas! We bet they will take their kids there too someday...

10 comments:

  1. That barbecue place sound like our kind of food!

    There is another blessing you have....having the grands close by.

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  2. I love places like these. When we went to Disney with the kids when they were little we went to a restaurant that was retro. They would tell you to get your elbows off the table. Loads of fun.

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  3. Although it is only 9:00 a.m. here, you've now made me very hungry. I'm craving BBQ and maybe some blue jello! Looks like lots of fun to be had on Friday nights!

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  4. I love traditions and I love Mom and Pop's restaurants. IT's just a good time to hear the waitress call you honey and be happy.
    Have a tiggeriffic day~! ta ta for now from Iowa

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  5. These are the kinds of places we too like to go to. We don't have any actual drive-ins anymore but still some "greasy, old fashioned" burger places where you can sit inside! One of my all time favorite restaurants is a small chain in the Seattle (WA) area called Burgermaster... they still have a couple that are drive in only. Back before we had kids and lived in the area we were in there more than once per week... we even stopped there for lunch on the way home from the hospital after my first child was born!

    Thanks for sharing, places like these are truly disappearing...

    ~Chris

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  6. YUMMY to the BBQ place...I LOVE BBQ I've never tasted fried Okra. What does it taste like?....:)JP

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  7. the food looks yummy! nothin beats barbecue!

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  8. This all seems so exotic to someone from Scotland! I've only visited a tiny part of the USA, and would love to see more. I'll enjoy catching a glimpse of your area.

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  9. What a great idea and a fun tradition that they won't forget. I would like to go with you to all of these places too, although I would probably skip the jello!

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  10. Hey, I remember when there was no such thing as diet pop! In our area, the first diet pop was Tab, put out by Coke, and OMG, it was nasty! But lots of us drank it because there were no calories in it. Wow, diet pop has sure improved since then. And it's on the menu in every restaurant.

    We still have Murphy's (Home of the "Hot Hamburger"). I've never been able to acquire a taste for beef gravy on my fries though.

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