Thursday, January 21, 2010

DRIVE INS AND CAR HOPS

1-21-10...DRIVE INS AND CAR HOPS

I remember a drive in here called Wimpy's. I didn't get to go much but oh how I loved it when I did. Kids my age congregated there, usually on Sunday evenings, and ordered a coke. Any kind of soft drink was called Coke then. If you ordered a Coke the car hop said what kind would you like. A big glass was 10 cents. When I had ten cents I ordered Cherry coke. Wimpy would put any flavor you wanted in your ten cent coke. Now if you were lucky and had a whole quarter you could get a Hamburger and a coke. I can still taste those old fashioned hamburgers. Believe me they are not the same now. You went inside and put a nickle in the jukebox and got to pick three songs. Yep, Sure nuff, three of them. Speakers mounted outside blasted, Don't Be Cruel, Hello Mary Lou, Lets do the Twist and many more. Sometimes a car load of kids would sit there for two or three hours just visiting. We would sometimes get out on the parking lot and Bop or twist our fannies off. Wouldn't take long for my fanny to be off now. Just one coke and sometimes a hamburger and we were set for a night or day of fun.
Wimpy was a silver haired gentleman with a handle bar mustache. He had a healthy head of hair too and sometimes I'd notice it in the lights and I thought it was so pretty. He was slightly bent. Very tall, and walked with a lurch. He was kind and fair but best of all he liked teenagers. I wonder what they would say about a man like that now. They don't dare to even look at a kid. Wimpy would sit in the Parking lot with us and laugh and giggle right along with us.
The boys all had some kind of exhaust pipe , I didn't think I'd ever forget what those were called. Straight Pipe?? Whatever, it was one pipe and it was loud. They would sometimes all get to reving, (is that what it is?) their engines, and talk about loud. We loved it but usually Wimpy would come out and say, “Take it down a notch or two Boys”. They always did it too. Wimpy was a sweet man but he took no backtalk from a bunch of teenagers.
That was the first thing I noticed when I moved back home was Wimpy's Drive in was still there. Only the building though, no bunch of teenaged kids having the time of their life in those cars made in the 50's. (Now those cars are another story) There is an insurance office in the building now but if you listen real good sometimes you can hear All Shook Up blasting out of a speaker and hear the laughter of a bunch of teenagers having a bunch of good clean fun. I swear You can. Yep!!

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