Skyline Chili

 I found these plates at an estate sale this past weekend.

Shakey Memories

When I was a kid, eating out was a special event that might only happen 2 or 3 times a year and pizza was never one of my parents' choices.  Though I rarely got to eat it, it was my favorite.  I can recall a couple times my older sister took my other sister and I to Pizza Hut, but other than that, my pizza exposure was limited to Totino's or Jeno's frozen pizza at home when my parents went out without me.

But there was a golden period of about 4 years when pizza was a once-a-year guarantee. Starting in 7th grade, members of the school band could go to a week-long summer camp (yes, Band Camp) hosted on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. My sister, four years older than me, started going in 1977.  I would attend beginning in 1981.

Essentially, you practiced with same-aged kids from bands gathered from around the St. Louis Metropolitan area and at the end of the week on Friday night, give a concert for parents.

After the concert, we would go out to eat.  I'm not sure how it happened, but Shakey's Pizza was the decided restaurant.  The restaurant itself was in an old brick building, similar to this:

Palace of Poison

In 1947, a local St. Louis, Missouri entrepreneur named Arthur Wild opened a hamburger stand with a twist in Lemay, a community in south St. Louis County.  With a passion for the weird and unusual, he named his restaurant "Wild's Palace of Poison".  Situated at 1500 Lemay Ferry, one of the main thoroughfare's in South St. Louis County, it became a popular hangout for teens of the 1950's.

A few weeks ago, I attended the estate sale of Art's widow (Art having passed away about a decade ago).  There were few mementos left of the restaurant, but I did pick up this facsimile of an original menu.

Rock-afire Find

This being a new year, and the habit of making resolutions upon the new year being what it is, I thought I'd make one.  I don't have many vices and the ones I have, I don't want to give up (coffee, I'm looking at you), so I thought I'd make one aimed at this blog.  I resolve to make more posts in the new year.  Of course, resolutions being what they are, I can't promise how long it will last.

But, let's burn that bridge when we come to it, to merge a couple old adages.

First up is this Mitzi Mozzarella I found at an estate sale this past Fall.  I say "I found", but let me tell you the story from a proud father perspective.  

My wife and 2 daughters typically accompany me on my Saturday morning ventures to garage and estate sales and they have picked up on what piques my interest.  Not knowing what it was, but knowing it was something I'd like, my oldest daughter grabbed this Mitzi and showed it to me.

Hart's Buffeteria 1970

This 35mm slide was among a group of vacation slides from Estes Park, Colorado. It may be the only internet evidence of  Hart's Buffeteria (Parking in the Rear) and Cottage Inn.

The slide dates from around 1970 and looks down the road in dowtown Estes Park. The only other readable business is Log [something] Waffle Kitchen.

I'm trying to visualize what a mashup of a buffet (where you serve yourself) and cafeteria (where you are served from behind a counter) would look like. Maybe it was an early version of "all-you-can-eat" with service.  I'm also wondering how the photographer got this picture from above. It doesn't look like there are any buildings that tall in the area.  Possibly, he climbed up one of the hills that surrounds the town.

Suckin' on a Chili Dog Outside the Dairy King...

I came into a huge cache of vintage 35mm slides at a sale this weekend dating from the mid 1950's through 1970 (oh, you people are in for a treat!)

I thought I'd kick off the unveiling with one of my favorite slides to date.

Thus answering the question whether Dairy Queen ever married

Dairy King appears to also serve "Juicy Burgers", sundaes and malts not to mention all the Root Beer you care to take home.

This slide was simply marked "Colorado" and was dated 1960.  There are still Dairy Kings in Colorado, but I'm not sure if they are related to this drive in.

Clifton's Reopens

While reading my morning blogs, I came across this article on Clifton's Cafeteria.  Immediately, I thought, "Hey, I blogged about that cafeteria a while back."  Then I looked and discovered I never had (unless a reader remembers better than I do.  I couldn't find it doing a search).  I bought these postcards and booklet at a sale over a year ago.

The Caves 'n Cavern

Time for another postcard.  This one is an over-sized card (5" x 8 1/2") for The Caves 'N Cavern in Northview Mall in Indianapolis.

There's very little on the internet about it, but I did find this adverstisement on Flickr that gives you an idea of what it looked like.

Northview Mall is still there, but doesn't have it's own website and I would guess like most malls these days, they're not a going concern.

Noah's Ark

My parents didn't go out to dinner too often when I was a kid, but one of their usual places to go when they did was Noah's Ark in St. Charles, Missouri.  I was always asleep by the time they got home, but I was always assured of finding swizzle stick giraffes to play with when I woke up in the morning.

I found this brochure for Noah's Ark at an estate sale last week.  I love the Noah's Ark mobile.  I also never knew it was a Motor Inn as well.

I'm Nuts, You're Nuts, We're All Nuts for Spudnuts

Going through some of my collected ephemera the other day, I came across this postcard.  

Glasses with Character

When I was little, my sister and I would have sleepovers with my oldest sister.  Due to the age difference, she was more like an aunt to us.  On those occasions, we would always go out to lunch somewhere.  We didn't eat out much when I was a kid, even at McDonald's, so anything was a treat.  My sister would always ask whether we wanted to go to Pizza Hut or Taco Bell.  This was around 1975 and both were new to St. Louis.  They also both happened to stand right next to each at the intersection of Weber and Gravois roads.  Pizza Hut is still there, but Taco Bell's recognizable structure has been converted into a Chinese restaurant.

No matter how much hinting my oldest sister would make toward Taco Bell, we always chose Pizza Hut.  It was around this time, Pizza Hut had a promotion with Pepsi for giveaway glasses with Warner Bros. characters on them.  I recall getting Henery Hawk and my sister getting Petnuia Pig -- 2 third tier characters from the Warner's roster.  I didn't even know who Henery Hawk was -- still too young to appreciate Foghorn Leghorn, I was a dyed-in-the-wool Bugs Bunny fan.

I had that glass for years, but it finally broke a few years ago.  This past summer, I came across 2 of these glasses, and one just happened to be Henery.  I paid a quarter each for these.