Pensacola Times

I cannot remember the name of the establishment, nor do I recall which street it was located on, but I do know it was west of North Palafox a few streets and at the northern outskirts of Pensacola as it was in 1956 and 1957.  It was a drive-in restaurant that sat among a grove of trees on the west side of the street.  Its popularity was undoubtedly due to its policy of hiring young female waitresses exclusively.  They were magnets to the young sailor population in and around Pensacola at that time.

I met one of these young single ladies, and for whatever reason she agreed to go on a couple of dates to the movies with me.  It was through her that I learned of a rather unusual business practice used at the restaurant.  Believe it or not the girls paid $1 an hour to work there.  This was long before the days of minimum wages and such, at least for waitresses.  Because this place did such a tremendous amount of business the girls earned tips far and above any they could get at any other place anywhere near there.  So, a dollar of their earnings per hour still left them with far more than they could earn anywhere else, and the restaurant had a waiting list of girls who wanted to work there.

I’ve no idea where one would learn the skills needed to work there.  There was no parking lot management at all.  The vehicles owners parked haphazardly under the trees wherever they desired.  It was up to the girl working that particular area to keep up with movement, take orders, deliver them, and collect money owed.  There were anywhere from 6 to 10 girls working at any given time, depending on time of night, and day of the week.

Because of the heavy traffic in the area a local police officer was usually there.  One night several sailors decided to have a little fun.  A couple of them staged a fight near the building.  The policeman rushed from his car to the scene to break up the fracas.  While he was gone from his car someone chained his rear axle to a tree.  Then two more guys got in their cars and proceeded to start a drag race in the street.  With revving engines and a great squealing of tires they were off.  The officer ran to his car, entered it, and with much gusto started after the miscreants.  When he hit the end of that chain, the entire rear end of the car was instantly removed.  He sat there bewildered for a few seconds.  I’m sure the shock was terrible.  He attempted to discover who had done the dastardly deed, but no one knew anything.