DRIVE-INS and RESTAURANTS

      Unless we were on the road somewhere, my family rarely saw the inside of a real, sit-down restaurant.  With three boys in the family, at least my parents had the respect for others who didn't wish to eat in an environment which included three hell-raising hooligans.  I only wish more parents thought like that today.  Of course, with my Dad's modest earnings we could barely afford pizza more than once per week, much less a nice meal at The Top in Bexley.  I didn't see the inside of The Kahiki until Prom Night in 1977 (words cannot accurately describe the Kahiki), and I've still never been to Del Matto's on East Main Street.  I never saw the inside of The Desert Inn on Broad Street until it became the Playboy Club (and then I wished I'd never seen it). 

There were times when Mom would take me up to Emil's at Main and Hamilton (currently Arby's and Daddy O's), but that's primarily because she had a thing for their strawberry pie.  I can still remember standing at the checkout counter with my face pressed up against that refrigerated pie case at Emil's. 

And there were times when we frequented the Frisch's Big Boy on Main Street (which is now a Mi Mexico restaurant) for a "Buddy Boy" and that amazing fudge cake.  In my early years, I can remember visits to the Dog 'N Suds on East Main in Whitehall, located within walking distance of the Miles East Main Drive In Theater.  And although I don't recall too many visits, the eastside also had a Stewart's Drive-In Root Beer Stand on Yearling Road up until only a few years ago.  As I grew older and Dad became more prosperous in his business, special evenings were spent at The Longhorn steak house in Reynoldsburg, which has since changed its name, probably after a nice donation from the Longhorn Steak House chain.  But for the most part, nicer restaurants simply weren't visited by the Boster clan as a youth.

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