03/14/2010 ... Sandy's fan Ken provides scans from the local Denton High School yearbook! These shots are so good that they are presented here in large format so detail can be seen. Don't forget to scroll to the right to see the entire picture(s)!
Hello, recently I was looking through the advertisement section of the Denton High School, Denton, Texas annuals and, noticed several ads of Sandy's Hamburgers. Those were the days!
Best regards,
Ken
Most likely opened in 1963, Denton, Texas Sandy's was one of the restaurant's first fifty drive-ins! Special thanks to Derek 'Deke' Wakefield for providing this glimpse into yet another of Sandy's great locations!
Denton Sandy's took at least one ad out in the local high school yearbook business sponsor page. This ad is in the Krum High School,Jr,Elem TX 1971 BOBCAT Denton Yearbook. There is a slight chance that a picture of Sandy's appears in this ad. If anyone is in the area and can check at the public library, the local high school yearbooks from 1964 thru 1973 (and perhaps thru 1978) may just have a picture or more in the business sponsor section. If you have a digital camera and can shoot a copy of these ads for placement on this site, it would really be appreciated to help tell the story of Sandy's great classic Denton location!
Great site!
Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the Denton, TX Sandy's. It was located on the South side of University Drive (US Hwy/Route 380) across from the Denton Center strip shopping center. To be more specific, it was on a triangular shaped lot bordered by University on the North and Sunset on the South.
University has been the main drag here in Denton for HS kids since back in the 50's. Until the mall opened in the early 80s, University was THE place to be for teenagers and college students on weekends during the 60s and 70s. Of course, Denton HS was not far off the beaten path from University, and Texas Women's University (TWU - hence the street's name) was situated at the eastern end of the main drag. Our Sandy's was strategically located almost halfway between Denton HS and TWU.
I vaguely recall seeing it as a young child growing up in the 60's. The dancing Scottish girl on the sign made a strong impression on my mind back then. Unfortunately, I have no memories of us ever going there (but I remember relatives showing up at our house with Sandy's cups).
I have no memories of it being turned into a Hardees (but I confess I've slept a great deal since then). The site is currently the location of an Arby's restaurant. As far as I recall, the original Sandy's building was torn down sometime during the 70's.
I recall discussing it (along with a number of other now long gone places on the strip) with a friend a few years. He mentioned their Hi-Lo burgers as being one of their big staples. He jokingly comment in today's health conscious world, Hi-Lo would probably stand for 'High in cholesterol, Low in nutrition.'
Thanks for the memories,
Derek 'Deke' Wakefield
08/17/2008 ... I can't believe I found this site. My husband was Paul Machart who first started working at the Sandy's in Denton TX in 1963 as a counter worker.
We were both going to college at the time. We were married in 1964 and shortly thereafter, Paul was sent to Peoria, IL for training to become a manager and I went with him. We were only there for about 6 weeks.
We came back to Denton, TX where Paul managed the Denton store until we moved to Kewanee, IL in Aug or Sept of 1967. Jack Laughery and Bob____can't remember came down to see him while he was managing the store in Denton.
We stayed 9 years in Kewanee and were there when the 100th store was opened. Loved the company, the people and the town of Kewanee. I haven't been back since we were relocated with Hardees in 1976, when we moved to Topeka, KS. We were there for 21 years.
Paul died in 1996 from colon cancer. I remarried in 1998 and moved back to my home state of Arkansas. I know I have Sandy memorabilia somewhere. I have all those Earl Nightingale records but nothing to play them on. LOL
It was great looking at all the memories from Sandy's. Those were wonderful years!! Thanks for sharing. Sorry I didn't find the web site sooner.
Gloria (Machart) Allgood
03/14/2010 ... My name is Gary Thomas. I had no idea whatsoever that there was such a fanbase and interest in the old Sandy's drive-ins.
This morning, while shopping at the local Albertson's grocery store, I spotted a fellow I knew from back in the '60s. I spoke to him and of course, he didn't recognize me. I reminded him that I worked with his younger brother, Bill, at Sandy's while we were in high school. The guy I spoke to was Ken. Yes, the same Ken who just sent you pictures of the Denton Sandy's. He told me about your site and I went to it as soon as I got back home.
I still live in Denton and have seen plenty of changes on the site where Sandy's was built. Arby's is currently in that location and there is a small drive-thru Mexican restaurant located where the BELL gas station was located in the picture posted by Ken.
I started working the counter for $.90 per hour and moved up to running the grill for a whopping $ 1.10 ! There was nothing more fun than cooking 56 or 64 burgers at a time during a rush ! We had a great group of guys there, most of us classmates at Denton High. I was happy to see a posting on your site about Paul Machant. I worked for him and he really was a great person to work with. When he left, Mike Davis took over as manager of the store. Mike kept up with Paul for many years and it wasn't until last year, at Mike's mother's funeral, that I learned of Paul's death.
The Denton Sandy's was indeed located on the "main drag". University drive was a two lane road and the main east/west drive through down. A&W Root Beer was located on the west end and The Sonic and Burger King were located on the east end. There was a constant circle of vehicles on Friday and Saturday nites. Sandy's hired a off-duty policeman named Carl Castleberry to help keep traffic flowing. He was very well known by the younger set as not being too tolerant of much foolishness. When out of town teams came to play in Denton, Sandy's was the place for them to stop. There was probably room to park 40-50 cars around Sandy's. So when you combined that crowd, along with a couple of busloads of teenagers - Party ON.
It was a sad day when Hardee's took over the location. It didn't seem to last very long. I don't think the townspeople supported it like they did Sandy's - I know I didn't.
I still see or talk to some of "crew" so I will let them know about your site so they can share some of their thoughts with you and other fans. In the meantime, here are some things I remember from working there all these years ago;
THE CAMELOT PROMOTION: At one time, Sandy's was promoting Camelot. I can't remember if it was the play, the movie or what, but we had several hundred albums of the soundtrack and they were available at some low price ( like $ 1.00 or such) with the purchase of a sandwich and drink. We had that record playing every moment the store was open for several weeks. To this day, every time I hear anything from that soundtrack on the radio or whatever, it drives me nuts !
BELOW - THE INFAMOUS CAMELOT RECORD COVER
I read in one of your postings about the recipe for the HI-LO sauce. We made ours in large 30 gal Rubbermaid trash can. I remember the mayo, pickle relish (although I did forget using both sweet and dill), dehydrated onions. I didn't recall sugar or mustard (thought it was ketchup). It would take at least two us to do it and we used small wooden boat oars to mix it up.
CHEESE ONE ! Often we would run out of cheeseburgers up front, so we would hand back a regular hamburger to the grill man and have him CHEESE ONE. A slice of cheese would go down on the grill, get bubbly, topped with the top half of the bun and put back together as a cheeseburger. New guys were always a good target for practical jokes. I'll never forget late one Friday nite, Lee Harris (shift manager) asked Larry Kerner (new guy) to hand back burger to be cheesed. When Lee called back "cheeseburger up", Larry reached to pick it up and WHAM !, down came the bun top with the hot cheese, right on Kerner's arm !!! Believe me, whatever you do next is wrong. Grabbing it off, burns the other hand - leaving it on - bad idea ,too. Finally, after a lot screaming and running around, Larry got it off - hair and all. He had that scar for a long time.
THE KETCHUP PAC - Seems Lee and another guy, Robert Leith thought it was a great idea to lay a ketchup pac down on the counter, call someone over to talk and then slam their fist down on the ketchup pac - SPLAT !!. You look like you just got shot in the gut. Robert thought it would be fun to try it on some of the customers he knew - NOT.
TOWEL POPPING - Just like the popular locker room trick of popping your buddies with a bath towel, we used the smaller bar towels that we used to AJAX the stainless steel everything ( now that was a job nobody liked ). The smaller towels, with one wet end were easy to use in a small area, like between the counter and the warmer; the grill area, etc. Some nites would erupt into a small war.
IT'S a SMALL WORLD. I read on your site that the various stores were allowed to buy products from local vendors rather than a corporate commissary. We had a guy named Jack that would deliver our hamburger patties in 50# tubs about every other day. He worked for a local slaughterhouse by the name of Hensley Packing . Several years down the road, and two wives later, I married a girl who had moved to Denton from Arlington. Turns out she came to Denton because her dad had bought Hensley Packing. I did some part-time work for him, shared my acquaintance with Jack and learned that he had been the Best skinner the company ever had. He could skin a fresh killed cow in about twenty minutes.
THE PIZZA/BURGER SWAP - Friday and Saturday nites were always the big ones. Open 'til 12:00, clean up would easily last until well after 1:00. You were tired and hungry. There was usually a few burgers and fries left over , but after messing with them for hours and hours, that was the last thing you wanted to eat. That late at nite, you had little choice. After working at Sandy's for a couple of years, the first Pizza Inn in Denton opened it's doors on Sunset Drive, right behind Sandy's. It didn't take us long to get to know their employees and on Saturday nites, we would trade hamburgers for pizza - we were both happy!
Gary Thomas
06/13/2010 ... Sandy's fan Toby Hooper remembers Denton Sandy's!
I was born in Denton in 1962.
I remember riding in our family’s Dodge Dart, parking at Sandy’s and eating my first French fries. As a little boy, probably 1966, I couldn’t read and didn’t know the name of the place but I would simply tell my parents that wanted to go the place with the “dancing girl” on the sign.
Toby C Hooper
If you have any memorabilia, pictures or stories of Sandy's in Denton, Texas or elsewhere, please email me!
