By “BUZZ” KING, guest columnist
In the 1950s and even before, there were more eateries in town than shops.
One of the most popular was Jerry’s Drive-in restaurant just behind the Nashville House at Main Street and what is now Old School Way.
The first building sat to the south end of the property and was a small frame building with a parking lot in front with curb service. With a stone parking lot, skates were out of the question, as was popular in the cities in the ‘40s and ‘50s.
The menu was basic: root beer, orange drink, foot-long hot dogs, and BBQ sandwiches; also, root beer floats, later on was Half & Half.
My sister, Linda King, worked there and claimed she invented the very popular Half & Half: a frosted mug with one-third ice, then orange to halfway, and finished with root beer and a straw. The drink was not good if you added too much orange. Word spread and finally it was added to the menu on the wall.
Chips (5 cents) and stick pretzels (1 cent) were popular. A 5-cent jukebox made it an after-school must.
Before I started to work there, a perk was offered by the jukebox company. We painted quarters red with fingernail polish and when the man came to empty the money box, he returned the red coins to us for reuse.
Jerry Kinnane was the owner and had saved or borrowed money to build a cinder block building on the parking lot’s extreme north end. It had a covered concrete porch across from the courthouse with a walk-up order window. He closed long enough to move the three freezers and other equipment to the new location, all while building booths and a counter (no tables inside). When it reopened for business, it was time to demolish the frame building and finish the lot with fresh stone. This one even had an employee restroom which was used from time to time by everyone.
The root beer syrup was homemade. An ice maker, steam table and frosted mugs, large and small, rounded out the items in the small building. Orange had ice and root beer was served cold in a frosted mug with no ice. The steamed buns made the foot-long hot dogs tasty.
There was a pay phone on the wall next to the front door. On top we kept a dime for use by anyone to make a call and let it ring one time only. This was the signal to return the call to Jerry’s. The dime was then returned to the top of the phone. (Two rings was the Brown County park pool.)
The business and building were sold to Bill Percifield. Bill added hamburgers and french fries to the menu, which attracted many more and new customers than ever. We grilled the burgers with onion, which gave the beef patty a special, down-home taste. Again, steamed buns made them even better.
Summer was great, and many of the locals had a quick lunch. The courthouse supplied much of the lunch crowd.
Later, the business was sold to Mr. and Mrs. George Mathis who added even more items to the menu.
I drove the train in those days and once a week, George would bring me an elephant ear as I passed, and when the train stopped at the end of the tour, 80 percent would head up the alley to the root beer stand.
And Saturday in the summer gave a chance for the Gnaw Bone Camp boys to come to town and spend their money. The root beer stand was their first stop or last stop.
So much more to tell, but my mouth is watering with the recollections and I just can’t go on now.
There will never be that food or those days again.
‘Til next time. — Buzz
