Horst Happenings....: Thursday, May 15, 2008

Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Restaurants On Memory Lane

Sometimes you start to reminisce at the strangest times. Well, now is it. Last night I was thinking about some of the hamburger places that my family would go to when I was much, much younger. Waco has had it's share of chain restaurants and local restaurants come and go. One hamburger place I remember that I think was a local establishment was The Chuck Wagon. The Chuck Wagon was a walk up establishment that I remember my family going to many times. It was located on Waco Drive in the vicinity of 7th or 8th Street s or thereabouts. The main thing I remember about the restaurant were the wagon wheels that adorned the outside. We would drive up and park. My dad would go to the window and order and then we would wait to hear our number called. When the number was called you knew that something good was coming. Years later the restaurant moved a few blocks down Waco Drive and then moved again to New Road and Waco Drive. It has been closed for many years now.

Another restaurant that has given me many memories is The Golden Point. They sold hamburgers and fries. I suppose they were similar to McDonald's. We would go there Sunday afternoons and get a bag of burgers and fries. I recall the burgers cost 15 cents. It was located on Valley Mills Drive and Sanger Avenue. At the time we would go to the Golden Point it was on the part of Valley Mills Drive that was beginning to narrow down to a couple of lanes heading out of town towards the lake. Now that same spot has seven lanes and seems like the middle of town. At the time I thought that this restaurant was the only one in the world. Nope! Here is a website that has some pictures of several Golden Point restaurants from across the states. They closed a long time ago and the building was later torn down a replaced by a convenience store.

When I was in high school there was a Sandy's Drive In just down the road from the school. At that time we had open campus for lunch and students could leave campus and go anywhere in town. Just be back in time for your next class. Since I couldn't drive my first year at Richfield I would either eat at school, walk to the McDonald's (A local shop, not the big chain), walk to the snack bar in the Clark's Discount Store, or go to Sandy's. At the time I thought it was great. Maybe that was because I was able to take a break from school. Check out Captain Ernies Showboat for a lot of great information about Sandy's.

When I have more time I will share more of my memories of growing up in Waco. For now, I think I'll go get a burger at Cupp's Drive In or The Health Camp on the Traffic Circle.