Back When

When you’re traveling through Orange history, don’t get the Rhodes and Rhoads mixed up. I learned the Rhoads family owned the old walk-up Dairy Queen on Park Avenue at 10th Street. Bartley Rhoads wrote that his parents moved her in 1954 to operate the little ice cream and hamburger shop. That was in the days when a Dairy Queen was a small, wooden building with no room to eat outside. The stores didn’t have carhops either and no one had heard of a drive-through. Customers had to walk up to the window and order. Ice cream cones, sundaes and milk shakes would be made while you stood there. If you ordered a hamburger or chili dog, you stood to the side while it cooked.

Claire Rhoads Smith still lives in Orange and I ran into her this past Monday. Her parents were Ben and Edith and she helped work there. One of her jobs when she was young was putting the green stuffed olives on toothpicks, ready to be placed to hold the hamburger wrapper in place. She confirmed the restaurant didn’t have French fries, just the small green bags of Dentler potato chips.

She said the chips were kept on one of those metal clip-style stands. The Dentler’s delivery man could quickly shove the bags up into the clips, something she tried to do, but never accomplished.

Ellen Ray, Lutcher Stark Class of 1965, let me know that Jim’s was once called Marvin Williams. I read that and the memory of the name came back. We are both now wondering when it became Jim’s. Those fish baskets had tartar sauce that went great on not only the fish, but the fries, too.

Woody Bishop recalls being able to get a deluxe burger basket at Zack’s for 70 cents. It came with fries and onion rings in a cardboard box. I loved those cardboard boxes for the food. They were like the bakery boxes. Food looked special in them.

Seems like a lot of the drive-ins, walk-ups and cafes had homemade onion rings for sale. I’m getting hungry, now. I’m contemplating, too, about whether the onion rings back then were as greasy as many of the ones today, but I was too young to notice. I recall at times in my life hearing “that’s too sweet,” or “that’s too greasy” and thinking “How could anything be too sweet?” Since childhood, I’ve said those lines many times.

Tommy Gunn’s parents, Donald and Mary Lou Gunn, owned the Wigwam in the 1960s. It was on Western Avenue across the street from what was then West Orange High School. It was painted in purple and white for the Chiefs. I’ve heard the Wigwam had good burgers and Tommy said they also had homemade ice cream. What a treat.

Students were able to walk across the street and get lunch at the Wigwam. But when the school district “closed” the campus so students were not allowed to leave, the shop lost its business. The Wigwam had to close.

Another West Orange institution was the Green Light Cafe. Darryll Blount said his grandmother, Mae Latham, ran the business. Steve Kovatch must have liked it a lot. He named his automobile repair shop on Western Avenue Green Light in honor of the cafe.

Stephanie Lyons said Little Cypress had the Wanna Burger. She worked there and ate a burger every day. The shop also had onion rings. Monie Platt said DJ’s on Simmons Drive, owned by the Platt family, had burgers with fresh vegetables. She also declared the beef tips and gravy as the best ever.

R.E. Parker loved Drake’s the best. If I recall correctly, the item named “Drake Burger” had a chicken-fried patty on it. Of course Drake’s also had regular burgers.

Durke’s was opened during my last couple of years of high school. My friends and I would hang out there some. It was the first inside restaurant I knew that had a walk-up counter and gave you a number. Oh, the novelty. Brenna Manasco recalls going to Durke’s after swimming to get a burger and ice cream. Durke’s was also known for its ice cream treats. Lucy Terry, who is one of our local food experts because she operates Lucy’s Cafe and Bakery, recalls Durke’s. However, she admits maybe she liked Durke’s because of the boys hanging out there after football games.

The Brownwood neighborhood had Guillory’s as a place to grab a burger, according to Phillip Matthew Guillory. He also liked Burger Chef. He remembered getting to get your own “fixin’s” at Burger Chef.

And speaking of “fixin’s,” John Wayne Clark, who grew up in Cameron loving the burgers at Tex Miller’s butcher store, will never forget his first McDonald’s. He said he was in the Marines at Camp Pendleton. He got a McDonald’s and asked where the lettuce, tomato and pickle were. When he found out they didn’t have any of those traditional Texas items, he never went back.

With school starting again, I started thinking of some of the pranks students pulled over the years. Did a group of boys at Stark High really pickup up a Volkswagen and put it in the covered walkway between buildings? Do you know of any other pranks, let me know at backwhen1600@gmail.com.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-