Long Long Gone

[eggwards]

As I was thinking about generally nothing during a meeting I really didn't belong in today, i started thinking about places and things that have gone, but I knew I liked, at least at the time.

One thing was, growing up in a couple of small towns, we didn't have the chains that we have on every street corner today. Growing up in Texas, any town that wants to call itself a town had to have a Dairy Queen. This is nothing special, but it was probably the first chain restaurant that I could recognize, along with Kentucky Fried Chicken. We would have to travel to Dallas or San Antonio to find McDonald's or IHOP, both of which would be a treat when my grandparents took me there for a meal.

Really, the first burger place chain that I can remember (besides the afore mentioned DQ) in my hometown was Burger Chef. This was in Nacogdoches and years before Burger King would move into this college town. The funny thing is although it was a chain, I never saw another one. They had the first kids meal that I knew of that came in a special box that had games and perforated areas in the light cardboard that you would have to follow the instructions to make an airplane or something.

When we moved to Conroe, there was a Sambo's. It was a coffee shop chain. Conroe now has an IHOP and a Denny's and tons more, but at the time it was a Kettle, now closed, and Sambo's which went through a name change and became Village Inn. This was because Sambo's name was considered offensive to African Americans. When I was young, I didn't quite understand why, because my grandparents actually had a copy of the book, Little Black Sambo, and I never thought much of it - not realizing that the character was black, just that he was a little boy who outsmarted the tigers and made them run so fast that they turned into butter for his pancakes. Why wouldn't you name a pancake joint after that?

Alright, it was really kind of stupid. Still, the book lived next to The Pokey Little Puppy and the one about the Scuffy the tugboat for a long time. I just wasn't taught about why people found it offensive until years later. it seems strange that they would name something that.

Less offensive was the Scooby Doo Pizza Time Theater. This was a short-lived restaurant in the northern part of Houston, and I don't know if they ever had another one. They played classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and the whole restaurant had a Scooby theme. The activity area, complete with video games and skee ball, was dressed up as the Laff-a-Lympics. One of the interesting elements was a full, old time Wurlitzer pipe organ in the center. Otherwise, there was costumed characters dropping by occasionally. this was prior to Chucky Cheese.

Once the restaurant closed, the costumes moved to Hanna-Barbera Land, a few miles north, a whole theme park for built on the characters, where you could run into Fred Flintstone and George Jetson, both silent, on the same street. Once I had a driver's license, I went down to apply for a job as a costumed character, but I was already too tall to be a Smurf, or any other character there. Hanna-Barbera land failed because there was nothing for adults to do there. They closed down a few years later, and now the space is Splashtown waterpark.

Lastly, there was Ferrell's. There was one in Houston and Dallas. It was one of the first theme restaurants that I can think of. It was all based on a 1900's style ice cream parlor and had some of the best ice cream desserts I can think of. The waiters all came around and sang happy birthday in a barbershop style. They would also bang a large drum and go about the restaurant. Apparently there are still a few surviving Farrell's in southern California. I just remember making a few special trips when my birthday came around. Perhaps some birthday in the future I can go back to one.

Comments

[jdvsqz.livejournal.com]

One of my fond memeories driving through Texas often involved the food, in particular the burgers, BBQ sandwiches and sweet iced tea. I would still drive out of my way to find a place like Burger Chef or local diner instead of the franchise resturants.

We had Ferrell's here in the mid 70s; always a big treat.

BTW I thought Sambos became Denny's

[bendawg.livejournal.com]

I really like Village Inn. None of these other things really exist out here... Idaho doesn't have Village either. :-/ In Western Idaho I discovered a great place called Sheri's that is a northwestern thing.

[robearal.livejournal.com]

I remember Village Inn as a pizza joint, not as a Denny's type place. Of course, I have to dredge back 30 years in my memories for that.

[jdvsqz.livejournal.com]

There were Village Inn pizza parlors; not the same as the diner though.

Sambo and Burger Chef and all that food

[jamesbeary.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh I remember Burger Chef. There were two or three locations in Austin, and my older brother Bob lived in that city. That was in the late 1970's. Anyway he would take me there because it was nearby and cheap. I remember Big Shef. They had it long before McDonald decided to copy them with Big Mac. I am sad that there are no Burger Chef, I thought they were cooler than McDonalds or Burger King.

Sambo, there was a Sambo on Coit and LBJ Freeway. It became a Denny's and was torn down as it was in the way of the LBJ-Central Expressway interchange freeway expansion and construction. I remember eating there once or twice when it was still Sambo.

I remember there was Ferrell's in Valley View Mall. It was such a fun place to go, and my mom would always treat me there if I was a well behaved boy for day at the mall with Mom.

Re: Sambo and Burger Chef and all that food

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yes, I distinctly remember the Ferrell's in Valley View. Since we often spent a week in Dallas buying school supplies around my birthday, my grandparents often took me there to celebrate.

[garebear.livejournal.com]

Either you're a lot older than I thought... It seems like I share the same memories of food chains... except we never had a burger chef or Scooby Doo Pizza Time Theater. Sambos mostly disappeared, although I believe one still existed as late as ten years ago between LA and San Diego. The last Ferrell's that I can remember closed it's doors 20 years ago....gads, I'm old!

[denminn.livejournal.com]

I do remember Farell's and looked at the website. What a wonderful trip down memory lane! There was one near my house in Flint. I went there for birthday parties (who didn't) and remember the loud band that played. Good times.

I also loved Burger Chef. We had a few in Flint back in the 70s and they gradually closed. Then, they opened a few new locations in the early 80s. Around 1985, Hardee's bought Burger Chef and they became Hardee's Stores. I do miss Burger Chef though.

[gullinbursti.livejournal.com]

Wow, I never made the connection between Sambo's and Village Inn -- when I was very young they switched over in my hometown, and I always thought the one went out of business and the other moved in. Didn't realize it was just a name change!

Scuffy the Tugboat brought back a few memories.. I had that and Little Black Sambo as leftovers from my youngest uncle's book collection, when I was a kid.

[f--k.livejournal.com]

Now there is a trip down memory lane. I remember always wanting my parents to take me to Ferrell's because it was just so cool, and maybe we could go their for my birthday and they would bang that drum and sing for me. How my parents could put up with the headache inducing crap I will never know.

However, the real memory you have inspired is of a long gone amusement park. Frontier Village (http://www.defunctparks.com/parks/CA/frontiervillage/frontier.htm) was just a few miles from where I grew up and I remember it fondly. Unfortunately it was torn down and replaced with housing and a business park in the early 80's as Silicon Valley grew and became the geek metroplex we know today. The only thing near by that remains of that era is the Hayes Mansion (http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Veranda/4103/hayes.html), which was also supposed to be torn down with Frontier Village. Preservation efforts succeeded and it has since been restored and is now a hotel and conference center, but keeping a majority of the original architecture intact.

[bigmacbear]

I remember going to a Farrell's in Cincinnati at sixteen and eating half of one of their largest confections -- a mountain of ice cream about a foot and a half tall. Then we all went over to a friend's house to watch movies and sleep over. I was sick as a dog all night from eating so much ice cream and washing it down with Coke.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I forgot what I used to have at Farrell's, but i know they used to have some really big deserts, including some thing that had a whole zoo of plastic animals climbing the matterhorn or something.

[ilorsodirettore.livejournal.com]

Odessa had a Sambo's, too. Remember the wooden nickels?

Odessa also had its Dairy Queens, and all the big chains. We were where the smaller towns' people came to on the weekends. We were the big city. Dear God, help them all.

But being a good Texas town, we had out Whataburger's as well. And we had this one guy, Bobby Cox, who gave Odessa and other places Taco Villa, Rosa's, and Texas Burger.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

There's a Texas Burger in East Texas too, but it's run by a totally different family, the Carter's. i like their burgers because they use a ton of MSG for flavoring.

[ilorsodirettore.livejournal.com]

Texas Burger is only in Odessa. The burgers are a lot like Whataburger. Their gimmick was that every burger was served with a cherry pepper on top.