History SKIP'S Drive In...Chicago Hot Rod Hangout Remembered* Pics*

It's really sad that, that part of Americana has all but disappeared from society and from the landscape.

 

I just missed it by a few years! but as a kid I remember there was a ballerina like what would be in a little girls music box in front of the place! All I remember was that the lot was packed! I had a teacher in H.S. that told about driving his buddys tri power G.T.O. down North ave, and learning about how fast it was in a hurry!

 

Your thinking of Costco. Menards is (was) the building that was built to replace Polk Brothers after it burnt to the ground. You can see tho old Polk brothers in the pics.
Skips was gone before my time, but i grew up hearing my dads stories of hanging out there. One time the whole crew he was hanging with got locked up by the county shariffs for street racing. The cops came and blocked the streets with busses and impounded every car in sight. It was a big mess, as lots of cars were getting all fucked up by the wrecker drivers. He didnt get arrested cause he didnt have his drivers license, but had to walk all the way home to Cicero.

 

I ventured to skips from Addison a few times during the summer of 1966.
your brothers description is just how i remember it... saw dragsters on trailers in the front parking lot next door at Polk Bros. also remember seeing a street driven altered there. and the blocking off of north ave. to stage drag races (east) toward Thatcher ave.
great memories

 

I still can't believe there are so few pics!

 

I asked my Dad if he remembered Skip's (he's 75 now):

Are you kidding?
Any car junkie went to Skips, a lot of cruisers that were there to show off their girlfriends and cars though mostly cars
Even took your mother there a couple of times with my first Corvette
They had the cutest carhops with short skirts when at the time ankle length was norm
You never knew what you might see, rail jobs, radical customs, motorcycles, sports cars, some cars came in on trailers
There was a lot of cash betting going on
If I remember correctly, it was an unincorporated stretch of North Ave between Oak Park and the suburb to the west, whose name escapes me, the reason that the cops stayed away
It was finally incorporated into one of the 'burbs and the local cops moved in, and if any money was seen, you were immediately escorted off the property
They didn't even like you to get out of your car to go to the john
The years that Skips was active, there never was any kind of accident, car and bike people watched out for one another, those were the good old days
Too much fun to be allowed!!!

 

I still can't believe that no one has any pic's of it during its hayday!!! Anybody know when it first opened???

Everyone went there, but no one seems to know anything about it!!!!!!! other then it was the place to meet!

 

Made many runs out of SKIPS most in a corvette * The fastest was my 1957 corvette with a 409/409/4/speed in it [ and yes with alot of work and IGGYS building headers for it ] it fit*
If I remember heading east out of SKIPS the 3rd street light was a 1/4 [ if wrong someone help me pit]

 

Made many runs out of SKIPS all in corvettes * The fastest was a 1957 corvette with a 409/409/4 speed in it* [ it did fit and with the help of iggys making the headers ]
If I remember heading out of skips east the 3 rd street light was a 1/4 mile * [ if wrong someone help out]

jim

 

Opps! Already posted.

 

I have Skip's original (porcelain covered metal) menu in my Restuarant on display. I get more comment about this Sighn than anything else. It was one of 2 Sighns on either side of Skip's building. Skip's daughter has one and I have the other. I'll post a pict of it tommorrow.

 

Thanks so much for posting these! Photos of Skip's on the net are pretty well nonexistent. I grew up in the Glenview/Northbrook area and never got to see the place, although I'd heard a lot about it. I do remember one good story related to it: In the mid-to-late '70s WLS radio had a contest called "Win Your Fantasy". Simple premise - you write the station telling them your fantasy and the winner gets $30,000.00 to make the fantasy come true. Catch was you had to listen to them read your fantasy on the air, then call in within an hour to qualify for the grand prize. The one fantasy I remember being read: "Help me bring back my version of American Graffiti - I'd like to win $30,000.00 to reopen Skip's Fiesta Drive-In."

The eventual winner was a woman who wanted to take her family to visit long-lost relatives in Poland.

 

That Polk Bros burned to ground in '88. You could see the smoke for miles. A careless salesman threw a cigarette on the floor and up she went. Kiddieland accross the street is also gone now.... Sad

 

Any heyday pics?

 

I second that motion

 

Those were the days. Never went to that one, but hung out in a lot of similar ones in the late 50's and early 60's.
Never will be anything that cool again!
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers..............

 

I was there every Friday and Saturday night. Did a lot of street Racing around there. The dragster and Anglia stories are true. Saw them too among many other Hot cars.
It was a great place to meet chicks and set up races. One of my friends actually married one of the car hops. COOL DAYS INDEED. Wish we could go back.
There was oine night I missed and the cops and sheriff's raided Polk Bros because we always parked in there to watch the races on North ave. It was like a swat effort cops blocked off the main intersections and busted around 30-40 guys and towed their cars away. It made all the papers.

 

I just moved to Chicago and that's pretty sad.... Awesome shots though. Any more? Love the stories. What were some of the original clubs back then? and are any around anymore? Any Oldtimers?

 

Dan’s 5-Window was running a Caddy with 4 Stromberg 97’s and a B&M Hydro
I was running a 327 with a Duntov 30/30, Fuelie Heads, duel quads and a Muncie 4 speed
I wish I had some pictures of Skips, but we weren’t in the digital age and not many of us were interested in cameras - had we only known!!
But let me see if I can describe the atmosphere on one of those Saturday nights when it seemed like the whole city was at Skips. The traffic entering Skip’s was backed up onto North Avenue, cars moved side by side in a counterclockwise direction, letting the cam’s idle set the pace stopping only for the waitresses roller skating by with their window tray’s full of hamburgers or pop. Like many busy nights there wasn’t any stalls to pull into but in the early days we could continue around in a circle until we found a place to park (we always backed our Hot Rods in). Eventually they laid down concrete parking barriers to keep us from circling so we had to exit on the first go around. You had to turn right leaving Skips because at this point North Avenue was three lanes one way going East separated by a median strip with three lanes going West. With hundreds of people in Polk Brothers parking lot, Danny took the outside lane and I moved to the middle lane. On the third beep we jumped on it - I grabbed second, slammed third and then ---- the lights went on!! Yep, one of the States finest had us in his cross hairs! I don’t remember the line of B/S we threw at him, but I do remember the list of twenty tickets he was going to write us - “IF” he caught us out again that night!! We garaged them for the evening and decided to spend a week or so on the South side of Chicago!!

 

Awesom pictures and great stories to hear form the senior guys. born in 86' i thrive off hearing about the good ol days.

 

Here's a pic I found in a old Car Craft. I sure do miss this place. We were always there until it closed.

 

I was in the class of 63 in Lake Park High School, between Itasca and Roselle, and after went into the service. We used to drive in to Skips to see the show, in the early 60's, what was happening, cars, girls, racing, everything. thanks for the pictures. my younger sister and i are watching American Grafitti now and i told her there was a place like that while i was growing up- Skips, and also was near KiddieLand. i looked on google and found this blog. Well, its progress, history, too bad, but great to remember tonight. thanks for the pics and for everyones comments- wonderful! hooray!

 

Very cool pics...thanks for posting!

 

In the Picture Colt 340 posted
I know the guy with the 58 Ford.
He still has it.

 

Cool! Do you have photos? Does it still have that nosebleed stance?

 

VERY ODD....when I was a kid....my Dad took me to Skips circa 1980...it was closed, and looked EXACTLY like the pics you took.

We must have visited at almost same day!!!

I was thinking about this the other day and remembering that day. We walked around, went inside and it still had the hamburger makers, deep fryers, sinks and fixtures. Cant believe nobody took all that stuff. Wonder where the neons went.

I do remember as a kid, going to Polk Brothers, or to Thatcher to go to grandmas' house and passing the closed Skip's hundreds of times, and every time...my Dad told us all the stories, so the images you present here were embedded in our psyche for the last 30 years or so.

I did a search for pictures and voila...not only do you have pics, but the pics that were burned in my memory...very cool indeed.

 

I remember Polk Brothers used the awnings for customer parking. They remind me of the awning at Dodger Stadium...same era...

 

So post it already!!!!

 

Based on this photo...the neon went down with the building!! Terrible Shame!! I lived in Northlake as a kid 1970-1986....remember this all.

 

If anyone wants to see a glimmer of what Skips was like, check out Strat's on North Ave ( a few miles west of the old Skips), just West of IL-83. On most any friday night from May-October til 2am...it's packed with Teens eating burgers, sitting outside on or around their classics or their chopped up modded hot rods. While they don't close down North Ave....they do peel out and drag race 1/4 mile to Villa Ave. Cops love catching them!!
I pulled in with my 2000 Porsche Boxster and got made fun of!!!! I'm sure Skips was a lot like this.