Thursday, June 05, 2008
Kenna Holm
TURF CAFE–POLAR QUEEN–CARTER’S SERVICE
Okay--to start of with, I realize I put the wrong address on the Stake house last week. I put it at 800 South and 500 West and it should have been 800 West and 500 South. My husband picked that up right away. I could say I did it on purpose to see if anyone was alert enough to catch it, but no--I made another mistake.
I've wanted to write about the old Turf Cafe, Service Station and Polar Queen Drive In for some time. I couldn't find a picture of it and today I got lucky. I called LaVee Curtis. She and her husband had owned it at one time and she didn't have a picture but suggested I call Wayne Carter's son in Palmyra and BINGO he had a picture. I was so excited. That building has been gone for a lot of years but at one time was a super busy place. It stood where Little Caesar's Pizza and Mt. High Credit Union is now.
I think Jess Bachman built the place and ran it for awhile and then By and Delsa Staheli ran the restaurant . Now everyone knows what a great cook and restauranteur he was. He had the very best fish and chips you could ever imagine and they cost all of 49 cents for an order. His menu was great.
On the South side of the restaurant was the service station. Wayne Carter ran it. It had gas pumps and a bay where he worked on cars. Wayne was a fun guy and so friendly with everyone.
On the North side of the restaurant was the Polar Queen. (The Polar Queen that is up on the hill now was not in existence yet) It was really small and Jess and Wanda Bachman ran it. They lived directly behind where the Polar Queen is today.
I began working there when I was a Junior in High School. I think my wages was 35 cents an hour. I thought I was real lucky to have a job. I worked there for a long time even after I was married.
I remember the school lunch rush. We would put rows of hamburgers on to fry and they would be done about the time the kids came for lunch. That way they didn't have to wait to long. Those large hamburgers were served with a big handful of french fries put in the bottom of the sack and it was sold for 25 cents. If you wanted cheese it was 35 cents. The french fries were fresh, no frozen ones in those days. We had to peel the potatoes and then we precooked them in the french fryer so they wouldn't take so long to fry for orders.
Malts were probably more popular than shakes in those days and they sold for 25 cents also. Drinks were 5 and 10 cents- and those were I think 12 and 16 oz. drinks. I think we had Coke, Orange, Root Beer and I can't remember if there were any other flavors or not. It wasn't a big selection. We had hamburgers and hot dogs, french fries, (10 cent and 25 cent orders) Those orders were huge compared to todays orders. The ice cream cones were 5 and 10 cents.
Those prices seem unreal now but then as you can see, we didn't make big wages so it was comparable.
I'm not sure when they everything moved. I know the new Polar Queen opened and the Turf quit selling food and went to a bar for a number of years. Wayne run the service station and also opened one down town where Leo Daley used to have the Chevron. Eventually he closed it.
They had a huge fire in the cafe and it was burned down
Does this take you back a ways to remember when.....
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