Is McDonald’s Wimpy’s?

McDonald's 06-07-2016Road Warriorette Shari came down from St. Louis for a few days to see her mother and to attend a ceremony recognizing her late grandmother’s work on the Capaha Park Rose Garden.

While we were cruising town looking at all the changes, it dawned on me that I had never been in the McDonald’s on Broadway near Central High School. We wondered if McDonald’s was this generation’s version of our Wimpy’s Drive-In with teenage drivers making an endless loop of cars between the long-gone burger joint and Pfisters. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Lines, but no looping

McDonald's 06-07-2016There was a steady stream of cars pulling into the parking lot, but they usually just queued up at the drive-in window, picked up their orders and took off. There weren’t any cars full of teenagers checking out each other or sitting and talking. Maybe they were all on social media.

The first Broadway McDonald’s was built in 1967 by Jerry Davis, who owned several landmark Cape eateries. He and flight instructor Kenneth Krongos were killed when the small plane they were in crashed in bad weather in 2003.

You can read about Mr. Davis’ restaurants here.

My perfect record is intact. I still haven’t been inside the store. That’s not to knock the business; it’s just that there are too many other places I’d rather eat in the area.

10 Replies to “Is McDonald’s Wimpy’s?”

  1. The mention of Wimpy’s in the same sentence with the other place leaves me cold. There is nothing iconic about McDonalds, nothing special about the food served there. Meh.

  2. Back in the very early 1970’s during my last SEMO University days, my roommate loved Big Mac burgers but didn’t have a car. McDonalds would deliver but had a $3.00 minimum. Hmmm, No problem, he would order 6 Big Macs at a time. Wow. Then you could also get a SEMO burger with fries delivered for $1.00. At that time it seemed Wimpy’s was on the wane but Pfisters and the new Burger King were doing well. Does anyone remember the old white McDonalds van cruising around Cape? My friend Gary Adams bought that van around 1970 or 1971. To me, those were the burger war days, the only war with no casualties and good for every burger lover involved.

    1. i traded gary addams that van with ronald mcdonald on the side for cash and his cougar, that was my family that opened mcds and i worked with gary, i remebe ryou i think, ou play for semo/ didnt u have a brother also/? i was a bar tender around cape and i remember a thin red head waitress who was in luv with u

  3. There hasn’t been cruising on Broadway since they made it 4 lanes. When I was in high school in the late 90’s we did have our loop of McDonald’s to Houck Stadium and back, all night long! So much fun, but now that I’m grown, so much gas wasted!!! Lobed the weekends on the strip though!!

  4. I started working at blue hole on kingshighway in ’68 then moved to sani cream in ’70 as a delivery driver. Spent many nights delivering Jenny penny chicken and hamburgers to SEMO. That’s where I work now, almost came full circle. Memories are great

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