1106 - summer sundays

a long-time icon of pittsburg, kansas, is the 1106 drive-in. this is the old-style drive-in, for hamburgers, sandwiches, fries, tots, ice cream. the best greasy burger and fries in the area -- truth be told. the restaurant has been there almost all of my life (and i'm 41), so it is very well-known in this area.

for this altered book project, the topic was "dining rituals" and i was totally stumped on this one. my family had dining rituals, but i didn't really feel they were special enough or decorative enough to put in the book. then i remembered eating in the car at 1106 . . .

when i was little, we often went to the swimming pool for the afternoon on sundays. this was really quite a treat because we lived out of town and swimming was not something that we got to do just any time. we had a 1964 turquoise dodge, just the model shown in the pictures above. while it may look roomy -- it wasn't big enough in the back seat for 2 big brothers and little sister!

anyway, after an afternoon of swimming, we would often stop off at 1106 for a snack or for a meal. it was a great treat. i recently heard that 1106 was closing because it was being sold and i felt so sad -- as if part of my childhood was disappearing. i hadn't eaten there but 2x in the last 5 years, but it just felt wrong for it to not be there.

well, we've just found out that the 1106 is only closing for repairs and will soon reopen for business as usual. the business did sell, but the owner sold to someone who wanted to keep the pittsburg icon the same instead of tearing it down to make a new business there. i guess backyard burger is going to have to take over the old burger king building!

yeah, 1106 is still a part of pittsburg!