Memories of th Pioneer Drive In: The Spatula Days

Sometime ago, when I graduated from high school, I got a summer job at the Pioneer Drive Inn at Hwy 61 and Hwy 244 in White Bear Lake. It was the first job other than lawn care and I still worked the lawn stuff early in the day and then went to the cafe at night.

It was a time of classic transitions----just a mile from the Pioneer Drive Inn, with its classic canopy and the drive up tray holders with the menu and voice system, construction was in progress on the very first McDonalds for White Bear Lake. In just a few months, McDonalds would be rolling out the menu of 25 cent burgers and coke and fries.....and the Pioneer would surely be out of business and sold. Everyone knew. These were the final days.

One of the regular fry cooks had suddenly quit to take a position on the dishwasher line at Whirlpool in St. Paul, and the back up fry cook position had opened up. I was the "gofer" for the early training period, and was trained to be respectful to our head honcho fry cook, "Tony". He was about 21, rode a brand new Harley, and was dating the head waitress, "Susie".

She sure was a beauty-----that Harley. It was a Duo Glide---and by all Harley enthusiasts it was the most beautiful Harley of all time. It was not the Electra Glide--that came next. This was the model with the kick start and the magneto, not the points. Click on the post for some pictures. And it was beautiful. OK. And so was Susie.

Every Saturday night, just about 11PM, when the traffic started to slow just a bit, Tony would turn to me and say, " Well, it's time to blow this pop joint," and he would ceremoniously toss the spatula to me to take over.

Then with a wink, and a smile, he would shout, "Let's go Susie".

He would quickly punch out his time card and the two of them would head out and mount the massive Harley parked neatly on the side of the restaurant, in eye's view of Tony at the grill.

There was something magical about the way those two took off from the Pioneer Drive Inn. Those were the golden early years of biking and------ As modern folks know..... riding back then was rough. Even with shocks front and back.....the bikes still vibrated a lot. The engines were not balanced like they are today.
Then of course you had the people that did not like bikers and would try and run em off the road. You had to be pretty tough back in those days. Those were the Outlaw days of biking.

My wheels were a 52 Buick with a straight stick. Needless to say, I was not in the league of those wild and crazy Harley guys. In fact. In retrospect. I was pretty darn lucky to be back up fry cook and be the recipient of that tossed spatula.