Beany's Drive Thru-Long Beach, CA-'52-53

[YellowRose]

Ahhhh! The good ole days! Check out those prices, mode of dress and those cars! I wonder if we have anyone in Long Beach on this Forum that has been to Beany's Drive Thru??? Thanks, Jim ~ elijahbird7 for this!

https://vimeo.com/110260174

[840 840 840]

Loved IT !
Charley

[bird 60]

Great clip Ray. You would've been 16-17 year old then. did you have your own car? if so what was it?

Chris....From OZ.

[YellowRose]

Beany's Drive Thru-Long Beach, CA-'52-53

Hi Chris, my first vehicle, other than a bicycle, was a red Cushman Motor Scooter that I had in Camp Hill, PA back around 1952! It was probably a late 40's or early '50's scooter that I bought with my lawn care/snow shoveling/caddy money when I was about 15 or 16. I was making good money doing that kind of work and bought it myself. My step-brother was a mechanic, and he overhauled it, and painted it candy apple metallic red! It was fun to drive. I wish I still had it! I kept it til I joined the Air Force in late 1953 and I sold it, along with my lawn care/snow shoveling clients to a buddy of mine.

In late 1956, I returned from a 2 year tour in Japan, and was assigned to an air base outside of Houston where I met my wife to be, Faye. I would go to their home on the weekends to date her and spend time with her family. Her Dad had a late 40's or early 50's yellow Mercury with a black sun visor on it. When I was there visiting with them, I would wash his cars for him. I would put on an old pair of Dad's cowboy boots to wash the cars. One weekend I went there and the Mercury was gone and sitting in its place was a blue and white 1957 Ford Skyliner! We liked to have worn that thing out that weekend, putting the top in the trunk and taking it back out again for us and the neighbors to see! No one had ever seen a car like that before!

I asked Dad what happened to the Mercury and he said he had traded it in for the Ford. I left, went to the dealership and bought the car back! The next time I visited them, they liked to have fallen over when I drove up the driveway with his old Merc! It turned out to be my first car, and the first car for Faye and I after we were married. I kept it until around 1958, when I traded it in for a new Ford Fairlane 500, as I recall.

Those old cowboy boots were to play an important part in dating Faye! They were hard to get off, and Faye used to tug and pull on them, trying to get them off my feet. One day, she was doing that, when one of the boots came off suddenly and she collapsed into my arms. We laughed and kissed and we both knew for sure we were in love.. Soooo, I asked her to marry me. She said I was gonna have to ask her Daddy for his permission, so I did. She was 18, had just graduated from High School and was working for Sears (and did for some 30+ years!), and I had just turned 21. On August 16th, 1957, we were married at Ellington AFB chapel with me in full military uniform. By the following year, our first son was born and I was off to Alaska for a year on a mountain top radar site outside of Homer. That is where I first saw a picture of a 1959 Tbird and fell in love with it. But that dream did not come true until 2007 when I found Rose!

I drove the Ford Fairlane 500 from Houston to Seattle, (Faye did not know how to drive back then) and stored at a friends ranch who took care of it for me while I was in Alaska. They would drive it around the ranch to keep the battery up, and give it a little activity. When I returned, they had it washed, serviced and ready to go and I drove it all the way back to Houston. I picked up my family, and moved us to Dallas, my new assignment..

Here are some pix, first of my lil red Scooter, then one of what my Merc looked like, though it was all yellow with just a black visor. Then a picture of the '57 Skyliner.. Old memories are fun to remember.. You asked and now ya know! lol... I just thought of something.... My first car was bright yellow, and several of my Fords were the same color... So maybe it was not just that Faye liked yellow roses, that caused me to make Rose the "Yellow Rose Of Texas" aka "Tweety Bird"!

[YellowRose]

Beany's Drive Thru-Long Beach, CA-'52-53

To get this back on track, I would love to know if anyone ever had the opportunity to visit Beany's Drive Thru in Long Beach! If so, I would love to hear about your visits there!

[elijahbird7]

Love that 57 Retractable. You know how partial I am to blue cars!

[Dan Leavens]

Ray I always knew you were an old " smoothie "

[Tbird1044]

Since I live in Long Beach, this got my attention. Beany's was right across from the Circle drive in theater which is about a mile from my house. I found out the Circle drive in closed in 1985, but I was never able to find out how long Beany's was in business. I moved to Long Beach in 1985, but don't remember the theater or Beany's. I'm going to ask some of my neighbors who have been long time residents.
Today, there is an In and Out Burger in the approximate location, that does an incredible business.
Nyles

[YellowRose]

Beany's Drive Thru-Long Beach, CA-'52-53

Hi Nyles, thanks for the post and additional information. That got me to digging for more Beany's history and in doing so, I found this 8:18 minute longer video of the vimeo clip I posted first. I tried to find some more information regarding when it closed, but so far, have not found it.

http://theoldmotor.com/?p=136446