In the Back Room

Some of my earliest memories are in the back room of my parents’ Reaban’s Drive-In, a burger place. I sat at a butcher block counter in the back corner of the room, playing with dolls, especially my Little Kittles. Occasionally I peeked through the saloon-style doors which separated the back room from the public part of the restaurant. My brother, Jeff, and I also played at the picnic table outside the back door, and in an unused part of the parking lot.

I was a year old when Mom and Dad moved us from Salem, Illinois to Benton, Illinois to open the restaurant. Dad eventually bought out of the Reaban’s franchise, and it became Al’s Drive-In. After running the restaurant for ten years, they sold it when my sister, Amy, was a year old. I was 11, and Jeff was 14.

Mom and Dad must have had many employees throughout the ten years, but only two linger in my memory. Mike, a young man who was their longest-term employee was always nice to me. Norma, a grandmotherly woman, taught me to dip my French fries in tartar sauce.

I ate my weight in cheeseburgers, fries, and Hostess cakes. Dad’s burgers were simply dressed in mustard, pickles, and onions. Dad seemed perplexed I found it necessary to add ketchup to mine. (A fun fact about the burgers: there was a time when Dad sold a dozen burgers for $1.00.)

When I was 9, Mom and Dad bought the house next door to the restaurant so Jeff and I could be home more often, yet still close-by. Occasionally I walked over to the restaurant and popped my head through the swinging doors; like the day I proclaimed I had found a small green worm on the kitchen counter at home. I couldn’t understand why I was quickly shushed, nor why Mom wasn’t pleased I shared this fact with the entire restaurant. There was also the day I was playing a game of jacks and got a jack stuck in my knee. I ran over to show my parents the fresh bleeding wound.  

Growing up in the back room of the restaurant was normal to me, but I preferred life after the restaurant was sold. I enjoyed Mom’s home cooked meals and knowing she would be home when I got out of school. This happy change in my childhood was the main reason I chose to be a stay-at-home mom after having kids of my own.