Remember When From the Past--Dew Drop Inn

Remember When
Thursday, 03 April 2008
Kenna Holm

Dew Drop Inn
    Do you remember the little cafe called Dew Drop Inn? It was a little cafe that sat on the place where the American Beauty Academy parking lot is now across from Dalton’s Restaurant.  It was built and run by Joe and Grace Brereton.  I’m not sure of the year it was built but it was a fun little hang-out for all ages.   Joe Brereton was one of the most friendly men you would ever meet.  He was a friend to all and so kind to everyone.  He was often doing kind things for those less fortunate.
    The cafe wasn’t to large.  It had a few tables and maybe a couple of booths and of course the counter you could sit up to.   Grace was a wonderful cook and they also had Della Baum who cooked there.   Their daughter Colleen (Thomas) and Faye Carter (Larry’s mom) worked there.   Joe loved the school kids and no matter how many were there, he never minded and they always felt welcomed.  They served great french fries and the drinks were served in cone shaped paper cups that was placed in a little metal holder.

   They had the old time punch boards, remember? There were two kinds.  The spindle that was jammed packed with tickets that you could pull out one at a time and the board that had little dots.You would take a little metal straight key (kind of like the ones on the cans of Spam before the pull tops).  You would poke it in the hole and poke out a little tiny folded up piece of paper that said if you were a winner.  Or it would have a number on it and then you put you name on a paper by the number you had gotten.  When the board had all been poked out, the name on the winning number won the big prize.  With the spindle, you would pull out a ticket to see if you had won a prize.  I don’t remember how much each try cost but we thought it was fun.  Some of the prizes were boxes of candy.  Of course this was all when it wasn’t against the law to gamble and the punch board would be one way they would call gambling now.

    Brereton’s had a little fresh fruit and vegetable stand to the side of the cafe called Brereton’s Market.  The kids helped out in the fruit stand.  Joe always liked to truck drive and he hauled fresh produce a lot.  He grew a lot of vegetables and fruit and had an orchard.
    Joe and Grace had a large family of 10 children so it kept them busy keeping food on the table and clothes on their backs but Joe always had a job.  He worked for Burdick Lumber Co.   He worked at the old Del Monte pea vinery (that s a good story for later).   He peddled fruit, worked in the mines and at Geneva and of course the cafe.
    It s fun to look at the picture of the cafe.  You can see the market that was to the south of the cafe and on the north was a service station.  I believe it was run by the Barnett s.  That building was torn down and Dutch Wightman built a new Chevron station there.   It was run a few years later by Leo Daley.   It is now an insurance office.  You can see the trees and fence that stood where the old Huish Theater stands now on the corner.
    Old Highway 91 ran in front of the Inn, which was the main thoroughfare that people traveled to go to Provo or  points south .  There were a lot of trees around then.
    Joe died at the early age of 47 in 1955 of a massive heart attack.  He and Grace had been married 25 years.  He left a big void in their lives.  Grace tried to run the cafe but rented it out for a while.  She met a man by the name of Carl Crippen at the Dew Drop Inn and later they were married and had one child.  In the early 60's,  Safeway bought them out so they could build their new big Safeway Market.  The Dew Drop Inn and the building to the south was then torn down and there went another old landmark of Payson but isn t it fun to remember back when