67redcudavert
Well-Known Member
The town I grew up in, Downers Grove, Ill, a western suburb of Chicago had a Topps Big Boy drive-in that opened sometime in the mid 50s. It was a hotbed of cruising, always full of cars, some of them pretty hot. It was strictly a drive-in with carhops year round, no inside service. Sometime in the late 60s they got tired of people looping through and not stopping, or stopping but not buying anything, so they put up a tollgate at the exit, a quarter to get out. If you bought something you got a token to get out with.
By the mid 70s they got tired of the problems with the drive-in and made the place over into a sitdown restaurant, but by that time the cruising was starting to fall off anyway.
By the early 80s the restaurant was gone and they turned it into a medical center.
About a mile east was a McDonalds that opened in 57. When I turned 16 in 67 I got a job there for $1 an hour. While working there I learned that it was the 5th McDonalds built in the U.S.
Spread out along a several mile stretch of this nice 4 lane road, Ogden Ave. there was the Big Boy, two Mcdonalds, two A&Ws, two Dog and Suds, and a few one-off places. It made for a nice cruise loop in the late 60s early 70s.
By the mid 70s they got tired of the problems with the drive-in and made the place over into a sitdown restaurant, but by that time the cruising was starting to fall off anyway.
By the early 80s the restaurant was gone and they turned it into a medical center.
About a mile east was a McDonalds that opened in 57. When I turned 16 in 67 I got a job there for $1 an hour. While working there I learned that it was the 5th McDonalds built in the U.S.
Spread out along a several mile stretch of this nice 4 lane road, Ogden Ave. there was the Big Boy, two Mcdonalds, two A&Ws, two Dog and Suds, and a few one-off places. It made for a nice cruise loop in the late 60s early 70s.
. I loved it!
