History Old Chicago Hang-outs?

Post about Dukes from www.chitownracing.com:

 

I hung out at Gossage Grill and cruised Archer Ave with my friend in her black 67 442 back in the 70's, I think it was 74. I remember a guy named Phil who drove a silver chevy called Quick Silver and another guy who had a brown Nova. Those were fun times. We ended up meeting some guys from Street Machines Unlimited and hung out with them for a while doing the auto shows, etc. Anyone remember 2 crazy girls in a black 442?

 

I've lived in Waukegan for about 5 years now and have made it to the "Scoop the Loop" three of the 5 years. It used to be put together by a few local car clubs and it was a great gathering. Some late model stuff, but mostly nice old rods. This last year the city decided to take over the car show and renamed it "Scoopin Genesse" It was completely lame. It's really sad to see such a great event turn to garbage. Most of the gear heads that used to show at the "Scoop the Loop" did not attend Scoopin Genesse. Instead most of the guys attended a car show in the neighboring town of Gurnee. It was ok, but doesn't have the same vib as the Scoop the Loop did. Zion, IL also has a yearly car show and cruise called Nostalgia Days. It's pretty cool except for the Donks and Ricer boys in attendance.

 

Bummer. I guess I'll take that show off my master vacation plan list. Gary

 

Practically lived at Skip's from '68 till they shut the doors. Never really ventured anywhere else except for a couple trips to North & Clybourn in '69. Don't know why I didn't spend a lot more time there. Something about that location really excited me. Maybe it was the stories I heard about the big money action there, or maybe the famous / infamous cars that raced there, like the "Streetcleaner", or maybe it was just the smell of fresh baked bread in the area???? Wonder what some of the big time street racers from "back in the day" are doing today?

 

I've got a Bearing Busters drag tag too. It belonged to my father who grew up in Hinsdale. His name was Pete Mchenry and I know Jack Kirsch was also a member. They hung out with Dave Farr whos dad owned an autoparts store in Hinsdale. They used to race outside Snow Whites on the north side of Chicago. Dave built flathead Ford and Cadillac/La Salle engines starting in the late 40's. Ogden Ave rings a bell. Something about a 300SL Gullwing and a '50 MG with a blown Cad engine. Anyone remember these people or the cars? Does anyone remember late forties and very early fifties racing at Solidier Field?

 

There use to be a myth of the blond driving a quick corvette at Skips

"If you beat me you can eat me" Never seen her ............

 

O'Hare Air Port off Manheim RD at Lawrence frontage road

 

That Myth about the Blonde is NO myth! I ran her on North Ave in my 69 Hemi Superbee and beat her but when I got back to Skips, she was nowhere to be found. The Only loss I had with my bee was to a girl driving a primered 56 Chevy and it turned out it had an experimental 427 Ford DOHC motor in it with a low profile blower. My bee had the Hemi with a 6-71 blower. It also turned out that Gene Marmor who use to have a speed shop in Chicago and ran stock cars at Soldiers field built the car.....Ahhh those were the memories....

 

COOL! FOUR first-time posters on this thread.

Also heard about the chick from Skip's. Some said she'd yell out the challenge and others told me she had the quote lettered on the deck lid of her car. I thought it was an "urban (make that suburban) legend"...now I'm not so sure.

 

Missed this thread.
1966-to 1969 or so..I ran there a lot.
Yep..I think it was Leigh Rd.
Summer 1968..
We had the quarter marked..had starters...and timers..and most guys sent a friend down to the finish to verify.
Some nights even sludge pots to mark the quarter.
I used to trailer my 57 Vette w427 and money run..or run my tow vehicle..
Royal GTO..w 421HO..
If anyone remembers the M&M Vette..towed by a Black GTO CONV..that was suspiciously fast for a stock 389

We'd go out fridays as sort of TestnTune..

The Base guys would do spoting for us..using thier radios to warn us of cops..EXCEPT

One evening..about 100 cars..and more as spectators.

First guys go off..cool. About 10 cars in we see cars not coming back. Police..no lights..just pulling them over. We get the word..try the back way..road block.

SO...cars go storming down Leigh Ave..on shoulders..in the culvert (drainage ditch)..right through the cops stopped.

About 100 got busted though..drag racing..spectator at a illegal event..

I..uh..escaped. Luckily the Vette was prepped for the weekend. So i just went to screw around with the goat. I was i line with a 396 Chevelle..when the shit hit the fan. We both screwed it on..past the cops at about 90..kept going..

We kept a low profile for weeks..and moved our racing to Golf road west..
Some roads up by Waukegan..or the usual stuff hanging at Skips or Super Dog on Milwaukee/Devon and pick up Polish chicks....

Another meet was the McDonalds on Waukegan..
Anyone remember the 9:10 PM Milwaukee Rd commuter event..?! (I will not speak of this unless PM )

PS..Yep..the Chick from Skips was a urban legend..I heard everything from she was a fox..to a 250lb beast...never saw her..but it was "legend". Don't know either way...

Good Times indeed..

 

What about Sauk Trail and Ridgeland on the far South Side and 111th and Central by the Keebler Plant. I think it was called the Frosted Mug by Route 30 and Western in the Heights. Correct me if I am Wrong. I was there in the 90's but my dad still talks about racing on ridgeland. Saw alot of fast Nova's and Pony's race for some big cash!! My cousin used to talk about Bremen Mall in Tinley Park on Friday nights.

 

The Blonde was a stone fox as far as her face and hair was concerned but I never saw her out of her car. It was a 62 or 63 Vette and the saying was on the upper tail of the Vette and looked like it had been written on there by a pinstriper! She was certainly no myth. I use to run almost every Sat night at Skips and on Sundays I would run my car at Union Grove WI. Remember on the radio how some of the commercials would start for another great dragstrip by saying "Sunday, Sunday, U.S. 30 Dragstrip, ........" It really funny because the 69 Bee that I have now has a 496 Stroker and it is actually Stronger than the 426 Hemi I had back then. I grew up in Mount Prospect and some of these comments are bringing back some great memories....

 

I was Niles...Glenview..Morton Grove..after moving out of the city. ..GOOD TIMES...

"Sunday..Sunday" The screamin' Wild Man Carl Bonafette..

 

I never did know his name I don't guess but I sure remember the commercials...ha. I also use to drive all over Chicago and there was a place on the far north side called Beefy 19 and I remember the fishnet stockings on the sign...smile. Remember the Olson rug waterfall and of course Riverview amusement park...... I bought my first superbee from Grand Spaulding Dodge and the funny thing is the Bee I have now was also originally bought from there but not with the Hemi that I had in my first Bee. Ahhh, those were the days....... When I went to high school, we had Greasers and Ra Ras and of course I was a greaser. I always liked the way the greaser chicks dressed better than the rara girls....ha

 

Then that chick really got around cause guys said they knew her in new jersey in the 70s .and my dad heard that story in the early 60's in new mexico.

 

Yep..I think my family would go there just for the falls..not to buy anything..

 

I don't know about other cities but I DO know that she existed at Skips because I not only saw the car, read the writing on the back of her car and saw her from about her boobs up. She had blonde teased hair, a ton of makeup on and from what I could see, really nice boobs but that was all I could see and she asked me if I wanted to run my Dodge....which I did. So I can say without a doubt there was a girl with that saying on the back of her car in Chicago.

 

Thanks for the photo of Olson Rug.....I remember going there and seeing that and I did'nt have any photos....but now I do.....Thank you!!! Sure brings back some memories.

 

I went past Skips many times as a little kid! I remember the Ballerina that would rotate around like the little jewlery box. But I was too young and had not gotten bit by the Hot Rod big yet!! Anyone have pics of Skips???

 

does anyone have any pics ?

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-090908wht-vikki,0,4875134.column

Skip's Fiesta


The young woman who answered the phone at the McDonald's near North and 1st Avenues in Melrose Park sounded very busy, so busy that she asked me to call back after 8 p.m., when things presumably would be calmer.

From that brief exchange, it was apparent that the fast-food franchise had nothing on Skip's Fiesta Drive-In, an old-fashioned hamburger joint that sat for decades at the same location across from Kiddieland. Former regulars say the Skip's parking lot was packed until 2 a.m. every weekend.

Picture teens hanging out, drag-racing, sipping on chocolate sodas and eating cheeseburgers -- like in the movies "American Graffiti" and "Grease." Now picture it happening every night in the otherwise quiet western Chicago suburbs from the 1940s to the 1970s.

That was Skip's.

"Life was more laid-back then, and fun was easily accessible. You didn't have to spend a lot of money or have a lot of fancy gadgets -- just your car," said Penny Pagor, who was 15 when she first put on the white blouse, black shorts, black fishnet stockings and majorette boots that were the Skip's uniform in the early 1960s. Waitresses in the years before her wore roller skates. After her, Skip's servers wore skimpy bunny suits with black fishnets.

Skip's was founded by William Nielsen after a conversation around the kitchen table one night. There was no Skip -- just Nielsen, who liked to invent hamburger recipes in his mother's kitchen and decided to open a business offering good food, his relatives told the Tribune in 1983.

Because of its location -- on a stretch of North Avenue surrounded by forest preserves and few traffic lights -- Skip's was a magnet for teens who drove Thunderbirds, Mustangs, Galaxies and other cars that looked extra good in the drive-in setting.

"I went there to show off the car, as many did," e-mailed Bob Mattern, 65, who grew up in Oak Park. He started with a 1966 Chevelle SS 396, traded it in for a new SS 396 and wound up with an air-conditioned 1968 model that "was unacceptable in the teen world -- how can you blast a radio with the windows up?"

The soundtrack in Mattern's mind from that era includes "Summer in the City," "Wild Thing" and "Louie, Louie."

Bill Grossi, 56, remembers how when he was a kid his father got angry one time when he was trying to drive his family home from Kiddieland but got stuck in traffic. Teens had closed down the road for a drag race.

"It was amazing, truly amazing. The inmates were running the asylum," Grossi said laughing, adding that years later when he was a teenager, Skip's was still the place to be for him and his friends.

The non-stop crowds made for busy work shifts for Pagor and other waitresses, who were assigned a number each night and given a stack of thick plastic cards with that number to place on their customers' windshields. If a customer drove off with a number, waitresses were charged 50 cents for the loss. Stolen trays cost servers $1.50 apiece -- a hefty penalty for waitresses paid 10 cents a car plus tips, Pagor said.

She remembers management at Skip's being so strict that waitresses were not allowed to use the restroom before midnight. If waitresses were even five minutes late for a shift, managers would confiscate their paychecks, Pagor said.

Still, she thinks fondly of her three years of waiting on 200 cars a night at the popular hangout.

"I still remember this little boy who was in the back seat of a car. He kept popping up saying, 'My dad says you girls is tomatoes,' " Pagor said. "And the dad kept saying, 'Sit down and be quiet.' "

Although fans of Skip's remember the restaurant's heyday well, few can pinpoint its closing. Nielsen, its founder, died March 7, 1972. Business already had slowed, Pagor said, because drive-ins weren't as popular.

Not long after it closed, Skip's already was being memorialized. Pagor attended a Skip's reunion at the Kane County Fairgrounds in 1973, wearing her full uniform. Years after, Skip's regulars still drove in caravans to the McDonald's that replaced it, sometimes circling the drive-through without ordering anything, just to honor their old hangout.

The McDonald's manager who was able to talk when things calmed down said she'd never seen a caravan of Skip's fans in her seven years of working there. But if people did come back to remember, she said, she probably wouldn't know anyway.

"I don't live around here, I live in the city. I just drive here and go right back," she said.

Librarians at the Melrose Park Public Library do see fans of Skip's. At least once a month, someone comes in looking for a photo or newspaper clipping or anything to remind them of that time, said Barb Giordano, library director.

"Some of the older people, they just like to relive their youth and just remember times gone by, when life was a little easier," Giordano said.

 

Super Dawg.. Milwaukee/Devon

 

Used to be a 58 Ford tudor straight axle car raised up with a 427.
Used to do Skips.
Got his picture in Hot Rod when the did the Drive-in thing years ago.

Anybody remember the Dog and Suds in Tinley Park about a 165th and Oak Park Ave about 64 and 65.
Used to race down 80th ave in Tinley Park.
Down the street from the Bowling Alley on 183rd St.

All gone now.
I drive down 80th Ave in Tinley Park now.
I wonder What The Hell Happened.

 

I can picture Skips in my mind but I also would love to have a photo of Skips. I remember the speed bumps all too well because my Bee would almost jump over them even at a crawl. Its sad that very few of us thought back then to take pictures of the places that we really liked and spent so much time at. I have fond memories of Skips because that was where I met my first wife.... She liked me and my SuperBee and I liked her Italian Dark looks and her Huge Boobs and for years we told people that was how we met and why we got married...ha.

 

There were a couple of Drive-ins on the South Side of Chicago near 127th and State Street.
One was called The Pit.

 

Pretty sure it was Jan Gabriel in Chicago.

Coincidentally, surface doctor started a timely thread about Jan just this morning:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=427157

 

Thanks for posting a link to my tread, Larry. I woudl have done it my self, but I didn't want to hijack this tread.

 

Following is a photo I took of Superdog when I came back to Chicago two years ago for a quick visit....

 

Sorry, I have'nt figured out yet how to add a photo into my message.....