Page 46 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote and Some Stuff I Didn't (2011) H. Morris Williams

All are gone now except for Donald Houston’s Desoto Drug Store,
which still carries, on most of the old time traditions.

The Green Derby, located where the Corner Kitchen formerly did
business, once inadvertently helped a CHS senior who worked there
get his high school diploma.

Seems the kid needed one-quarter credit in physical education to
graduate and appealed to the coach and the principal. The principal,
probably with a wink and a nod to the coach, decided that the boy’s
three years of physical activity at the Green Derby (‘jerking’ sodas,
flipping hamburgers, ‘hopping curbs’, pushing mops, and running
errands) was equal to one-quarter credit in PE and let him graduate.

After World War II when people were able to buy cars again, drive-in
restaurants became popular all around Lake City. The Lindy Lu, The
Dog N Suds, the Bronco, The Lake City Drive-In, Crosley’s Drive-In,
and The Kit Kat were all popular hangouts for local teens to see and
be seen. But the king of them all was the Magnolia Barbecue and
when the sun went down on Friday nights, teens headed for “The
Mag.”

A fruit and vegetable stand operator named Costa Extipes
(pronounced X-tuh-peez) predated even The Mag and he specialized
in the most delicious hamburgers this side of heaven in his curbside
business.

The Steak House, the Chicken Shack, the Sawdust Trail, the Al-Fran,
and Robert Arnold’s were other locally owned restaurants.

Full columns could be written to cover still others like the Rozelle’s
Red Diamond, Hazel and Leo Law’s original Red Barn, and Nettie
McColskey’s little jewel, the Corner Cupboard. All of these long ago
eateries are now gone and, to most, forgotten.

The first major chain restaurant in Lake City that didn’t have local
ownership was the Howard Johnson Restaurant when it was located
on U.S. 41/441 South, later the location of the old Thunderbird Motel.

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