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Recently Carl Fry and I did some photo shoots of various local Wichita Locations of Interest. Several of those locations were on Wichitas main drag, Douglas Avenue. So, I decided that maybe a photo narrative and history of the tradition of 'Draggin Douglas' might be in order. 2008 Wichita High School East I believe that most likely 'Draggin Douglas' began as soon as the first motor car drove down Douglas Avenue. But the impetus of the Wichitas youth making Douglas the 'See and Be Seen' place in town on weekends probably began when Wichita High School East was built at the intersection of Douglas and Grove street. As soon as kids started heading to East High in cars on Douglas for school the racous and rowdy activities of teenagers would have begun. Wichita High School East being for a time the largest school in Kansas would meant a lot of teenage drivers in the area. Traffic on Douglas would have seen the influx of the teenagers at regular schools out times as the kids would be leaving school and many heading west on Douglas to home or places for meeting up. On Friday nights traffic would have had kids coming to East high for evening football or basketball events and afterwards the winning team supporters would have taken to the street and headed west on Douglas to proclaim and celebrate their teams achievements. And these celebratory activities would most likely have continued for many long into the night until until gas money or stamina ran out. Other area high school students not having as prominent a street for display of school pride, most likely found Douglas Avenue the best place to espouse their own schools achievements and compete with the East High school supporters. Thus would have began the tradition of teenagers 'Draggin Douglas' on Friday Nights. and with this activity also would come the establishment of 'rest stops' or 'meeting places'. To take advantage of these teenagers in cars the 'Drivein' or 'Burger Joints' appeared on Douglas. 2008 NuWay Cafe on West Douglas The Continental Grille and NuWay Burgers on the West end of Douglas and in the 60's Sandys Burger DriveIn at the intersection of Grove and Douglas conveniently catecornered across the intersection from the East High School complex. 1969 Sandys Burger Drivein Across from East High with my coupe's dual fours showing at the bottom of the pic Checkout Chuck Kerls Sandys Burger Drivein Page The high school teenagers celebrating school activities on Friday nights would have also brought others not so interested in the sporting celebrations as much just the seeing and being seen aspects of being on douglas. Knowing that most everyone was likely to be on douglas on a Friday night made it easy for kids to go to find and be amoung friends as well as meeting other area kids. The rise of the 'automotive culture' made douglas the perfect place to exhibit and observe everyones distinctive automobiles because of the ready made audience. Thus began the activity of 'cruising' from one end of Douglas to the other and back again with the turn around or anchor points being the Sandys Burger Drivein for the Eastern loop and the Continental Grille or NuWay Cafe for the Western end loop with various sub/alternate loops added for other locations that became popular like the KingsX drivin at Lincoln and George Washington Blvd and the Town & Country Drivein at Hillside and Pawnee. 07/30/09 A personal history of Draggin Douglas by Carl Fry THE ROUTES: My first "real" trips "Draggin' th' Gut" were in the back seat of Leroy Ellis's 1953 Red-Ram hemi Dodge. He then bought a brand new 1955 hemi DeSoto. Leroy lived about a half-block from us, was working at Boeing and always had a new fast car.       In 1955 "The Route" was not specifically defined. (Or else we were not tuned in on it) We would drive up Pattie to Douglas and then Douglas to The Henry Burger on West Street. The Henry Burger was a good place to eat, look at girls and arrange drag races on 21st Street and on Tyler Road. The Route was then; Douglas to Hydraulic, Hydraulic to Kellogg, Kellogg east to Bowers Root Beer Stand. Bowers Drive-in was also a good place to arrange drag races on Rock Road and on Greenwich Road. Some places we visited along this route were: Spears Drug Store - Pattie at Kellogg (Sally Spears dad's place - 10 cent Lime Phosphates) I also used the outside payphone for 'private calls' as we had a party line at home Vern Humble's gas station Pattie at Kellogg (Flathead fuel dragster) The Kings-X at Pattie at Douglas (2-for a quarter in a cardboard box) The Henry Burger on North West Street (Home of the "Floating Henryburger") The Nu-Way on West Douglas (Still one of the "Must do" places in Wichita) The Continental Grill & Tel-A-Tray on West Douglas (So much traffic, they had a cop on duty) The Spot on East Douglas (Pool and Chili) The Union Station (Bathroom and they had a public City Directory) The Standard Gas Station at Hydraulic and Douglas ("Pappy" Cline's - Fuel Injection Expert) Armstrong's Ice Cream on E. Douglas ("Pig's Dinner" & I have the same Wurlitzer Juke Box) The Drug Store at Hydraulic and Kellogg (Soda fountain, juke box and cute girls) The Rose Bowl East on Kellogg (Bathroom and a good place to get the always-needed gas caps for the exhaust by-pass pipes made from gas tank filler tubes) The 54 Lounge East Kellogg (Underage beer available) Pizza Via (behind the 54 Lounge) (My first pizza was from here) Ted's Hideout on East Kellogg (Underage beer available) The Red Lyon in the Holiday Inn. (Older women and hot barmaids) Bowers Root Beer Stand on East Kellogg By the summer of 1958 the route had changed for a number of reasons. I was working at the Ford dealer located 1226 E. Douglas and I had inherited my brothers 1957 Chevy my last year in high school. Brother John had a 1957 red and white Corvette. Both cars had factory fuel injection and close ratio transmissions. We thought we were pretty cool .. And You know, We did have two of the fastest cars on Douglas at the time. I met Bill Rahn who was working at the Pontiac dealer next door. Between my brother, Roger Pike, Bill Rahn, Johnny McDowell, Kenny Stillwell, Joe Honeycut, Steve & Perry Ward, we pretty well knew all the car guys and gals Draggin' Douglas the summer of 1958. 1958/1965 there were two basic routes: Route "A" Started at the Continental Grill & Tel-A-Tray on West Douglas and went east on Douglas to Sandy's located at Grove and Douglas. From Sandy's, south on Grove to George Washington Blvd., then southeast to Hillside, then south on Hillside to The Town & County Drive In (T&C) located at Hillside and Pawnee. Route "B" Started at the T&C and went north on Hillside to Harry Street, then west on Harry to George Washington Blvd., then north-west to Kellogg and Hydraulic, then north on Hydraulic to Douglas, then west on Douglas to the Continental Grill & Tel-A-Tray. Most of us guys would drive both routes whenever we were Draggin' Douglas. The "best" places to see and be seen with your car were The T&C, Sandy's and the Continental. Some places we visited along these routes were: (In addition to some of the ones listed above) The Town & County Drive In (T&C) located Hillside at Pawnee Dairy Queen just west of Hillside on Pawnee Jacks Place further west on Pawnee The Trade Winds in South City "Pop's Sandbox" gas station located just south of Harry on Hillside McDonalds "walk-up" located just south of Harry on Hillside The Bowl-A-Rama located just south of Harry on Hillside The Aloma Lounge located on George Washington Blvd just south of Harry Street Dearmores (Hay! Look Dearmores!) located on George Washington Blvd just south of Harry Street Richards Lil' Dairy Queen at Lincoln and Grove Sandy's located at Grove and Douglas Wings Gas Station on east Douglas at Hillside We passed the afternoons and evenings burning fuel and rubber without regard to weather or season. Other than an occasional 'loud and unusual noise', driving without headlights, speeding, and (of all things), 'driving too slow' tickets the cops left us alone. I met my wife Bonnie and got married in 1966, traded the '57 Fuelie for a '65 Buick Riviera and dropped out of the Draggin' Douglas scene. Carl 07/31/09 Hi George, Got the note from Carl about your cruising stories and thought you might enjoy this one. One evening in early 1954, my friend John and I were dragging Douglas in his family's new 53 BelAire and the heat and tunes were on high. We stopped at Washington and a couple in a brand new blue 54 Corvette stopped next to us. The driver motioned to roll down the window and when I did, the man asked if we would like to trade cars. I laughed and said "sure" but he said he was serious, so when the light changed, we pulled over to the curb in front of Ed White's car lot and the guy got out and came back to talk to John. Seems he wanted a warm, closed car to make out in, so we took his Vette and he took the BelAire and we arranged to meet back at the same spot two hours later. It was a memorable night of top down, frosty cruising but I don't remember being particularly cold. Tim Hatfield 08/01/09 Hi Carl, You're right that does bring back a lot of memories! I find it hard to believe that you took pictures of the railroad bridge over Douglas and didn't get a shot of the Charger doing a burnout under the bridge! When I was cruising ('66 to '68) we turned around in the circle driveway of the Garvy building after it was finished. Before that we turned at Waco and looped around. I don't recall that we ever went across the Arkansas river bridge unless it was to go skating at the rink on North West Street. Here's what I sent to whoever has the Sandy's Hamburger site; Hi, Locate East High yearbooks from '65 to '68. One of those years they had a photo of what was reported to be a "race riot" at the Sandy's at Douglas and Grove. As I recall the event it was an altercation between North and East High students. Both schools having a pretty much equal number of black and white students it got called wrong. My recollection is that a fight happened after a football game that left hard feelings with some North high students, enough so that they came over to Sandy's early in the afternoon on a school day and a lot of us East High guys skipped out of our last period class to "go have a burger". My yearbooks were misplaced during one of my many moves over the years or I would send the photo's myself. Look for one of the East High football players showing fine kicking form on one of his own vice principals who was there in an attempt to defuse the situation. Steve Mericle 08/01/09 Hey Steve, Maybe George will relate his story of him doing a burnout with his Charger back when it was new.... and how he got out of the ticket... Carl 08/01/09 Ok Carl, Now as I remember it, back in 68 or 69 was Draggin Douglas one evening in the 67 Dodge Charger with my wife Bonny, Brother In Law Jonny Pate and his wife Charlotte in the back seats. On one pass, as we cruised under the railroad bridge, I was in such a good mood I thought I'd lite up the tires a bit just to celebrate life. I was either home on leave from the Army or had just gotten out, not sure which. Anyhow by the time we got from the railroad bridge to Washington Street intersection I had flashing lights in my rear view. Oh gee, I knew I was toast and was just wondering how much it was gonna cost. Anyhow, the cop came up to the door to do his duty and I did my Yes Sir and No Sir thing. Jonny Pate in the back seat who wasn't quite as bashful as me, started pleading the case, for me, with the cop, and how I was a poor soldier home on leave and a ticket would really cause me grief, etc, etc. I think I either was in field jacket or had my military ID to show the cop. As luck would have it, Jonny managed to talk the cop out of the ticket and he let us go with a 'Stern' warning. Heh, heh, that's the story as best I can remember it this time around. Carnut 08/01/09 Hey Chuck, Back in the Hobbs Chevrolet days, circa 1955, there was one unfortunate car that received a gas tank full of recycled suds... I was in the KANG with the manager of the Shakeys at 13th... Guess what? His nick name was Shakey Carter, how's that for being imaginative? Probably didn't help that Shakey drove a Corvair OK, OK at least it WAS a 140 hp Monza.. Sometimes we parked in the Mammals lot across the street from the Wings Gas Station near Hillside on Douglas and watched for girls that stopped for gas or the rest room. After the station closed, you could wash your car with the hose located at the pumps the station used to fill radiators. How cool was that, washing your car on Douglas on a warm night!! And as for you 409 guys, well, the small-block Chevy days were pretty much over when the HO Fords, big MoPars and big Bowties hit the street. I had given up on being competitive in Super Stock and built a 301 for "D" Gas with an Isky cam, 10-inch tires, 4.56 gears, 11" clutch and close ratio gears. Off the stoplights the old '57 Fuelie' was at least competitive, (around 14.20 @ 90 mph) especially if the new car had stock tires. The exhaust had gas tank filler necks installed to allow simple removing the 'gas cap' to open up the noise. Sometimes I could "intimidate" guys with the outrageous idle noise, especially if they had to yell over the noise. "What ? You say it's your MOMS car?... I'm sorry you will have to talk louder..OH ! Is THIS a fast car?... You better fuckin' believe THIS IS a fast car... I thought for a second you said THAT piece of junk is a fast car... etc.." Later.. Carl 08/01/09 Hey George, I read the bit from Tim Hatfield about the guy wanting to trade his 'vett for a larger car. This happened to me more than folks might imagine. My brother, John, always wanted to trade his '57 vett for my larger, '57 2-dht when he had a "Double Date". It was AWFUL having to go Draggin' Douglas in a new Fuelie 'vett. Anyhow, they are indeed small inside, as a matter of fact; one of John's dates (may have been Janie McDowell) lost one of her high-heels when she had her legs out over the side. They were going pretty fast on K15 near 31st South and never found the lost shoe. I always wondered how she explained the missing shoe.... I did get a ticket one night on Douglas for having three people in his 'vett. I had picked up two girls and they screamed at the top of their lungs as we went under the elevated tracks. This attracted the attention of a cop going the opposite direction that immediately flipped a U and turned on his red lights. I remember trying to convince the cop there was plenty of room to drive but he wasn't buying it... and there WAS room as long as one of the girls sat up on the back with only her feet inside the car resting on the consol by the shifter... or sat in her girlfriend's lap with her feet in my lap... It did not help that they both insisted on laughing continuously as we attempted to position our three bodies in the small space. Anyhow, one girl had to stand on the corner of StFrancis and Douglas while we retrieved her girlfriend's car from a nearby side street. The cop was still there when we returned with the girlfriend's folks Ford station wagon. He wanted to make sure we did not come back for her in the 'vett. Carl 08/02/09 The Last Ride, The last time I dragged Douglas in my Coupe was the summer of 1986. I was cruising Douglas on a warm summer evening dressed in my usual attire of tshirt and jeans. I was headed west just past Broadway in the inside lane when a heater hose inside under the dash let go, spraying me over my legs and abdomen up onto my chest with scalding hot water. At that time I had a combo heat and A/C underdash unit that I had routed heater hoses inside the car and apparently one of them cracked open due to age. I immediately came to a halt and jumped out of the car as steam was rising up and out the windows on both sides. The pain was immediate and excruciating. While I was standing there in a daze trying to get my wits about me a couple guys came up and asked if they could help. It was decided to push the Coupe off Douglas across the street and onto Market Street. There I sized up the situation and decided to disconnect the heater hose at the block outlets and double it over into the inlet bypassing the heater. I really couldn't think straight as to what to do. I didn't know if I had any water left in the engine, but late at night downtown I couldn't think of any places to get a water refill. I suddenly realized my lifelong friend Keith Meikle lived a few streets over just a couple blocks up from Douglas on Dodge street. I fired up the Coupe and managed to drive over Keiths house still in intense pain. Don't think I've ever been accused of thinking real straight normally and at this time I had even less coherence. Anyhow it was now close to midnight and Keith and Pam were fast asleep, but it was a warm evening and as luck would have it they were sleeping with windows open. I went around to their bedroom window where I tried to holler for Keith to wake up, by now I think I was just mewing like an injured kitten. I was hurting so bad I never considered that Keith being a Nam Vet who slept with 'protection' near his bedside, could easily have jumped up and started blasting an intruder without asking questions first. Fortunately Keith woke up and recognized me and got up and came out to help. I asked him for water for the radiator and if he had anything to put on my burns. He got the water, but we had to run over to a local Quick Trip to get some Vasoline to put on my burns, which helped a bit and allowed me to fire up the Coupe and drive it home, where I parked it until I realized in 2003 I would never drive it again and decided to make my nephew Troy Pate an offer he couldn't refuse to buy the Coupe. Troy still has the Coupe and I hope he continues to enjoy it. My Coupes Gonna Get A Hemi Now. 1972 Taco Kid on Douglas at Seneca Jonny Pate and My Coupes with Troy Pate behind the tire on Jonny's coupe Carnut 08/05/09 From Carl, Ski King: While I was working at Mathews Ford it was acceptable to participate in practical jokes involving your car.... The latest 'hot' configuration, at the time, from the West Coast was known as 'Diego-ing' where you lowered the front end as low as possible and raised the rear end as high as possible then routed chrome exhaust pipes under the axle. Unruh Alignment had just realigned the front end after I had cut the front coil springs in half. This along with the huge rear tires allowed the differential to be seen from about two car lengths back. As I was cruising one Saturday afternoon after work a number of folks that passed me on Douglas yelled something like "Hey, Ski King" "Where's your boat Ski King" etc... Sensing something was up; I finally stopped and looked the car over but failed to look under the car. After a couple of laps, finally, one of my pals told me to look under the rear of the car. Some co-worker had made a large cardboard sign and wired it on the rear axle that read SKI KING. The name stuck for few weeks as I did have a small 16' ski boat at the time. I did get even with the culprit (Gary Ervin) by putting a wet cigarette filter in his coil under his coil wire, when it dried out he about never figured why his car would not start. I was amazed it took almost a week for the filter to dry out... Red Light / White Light I was minding my own business a few weeks later, heading for the T&C on Douglas one evening about dark, when a cop flipped a U and turned on his lights and pulled me over. I knew I was driving with my parking lights on and I was ready to explain it was not 'officially' dark for at least another half-hour. Walking me to the front of my car the cop pointed to a pair of red lenses that had been glued over my parking lights. He allowed me to pry them off and we both had a laugh as I explained this was probably in retaliation for the cigarette filter gag. My next attempt to 'make things right' with Gary involved wrapping a layer of electrician tape around the battery post under the battery cable. That one made him late to work.... (great fun... hee hee hee....) Here Kitty, Kitty... I was headed for a bite at the Tel-a-Tray one winters evening. It was cold so I had the windows rolled up and the heat and KLEO on high. I pulled into a parking place, turned off the engine, rolled down the window to order when I heard a cat meowing really loud. I got out and found a cat had been placed under my hood in front of the radiator. I opened the hood and the poor cat scampered off into the night, still meowing loudly. I had driven across town with this cat screeching, but I could not hear him over the loud pipes, radio and having the windows rolled up. Some of my pals (and Gary) spread it around I was having trouble with cold pussy... I, once again, sneaked over to Gary's apartment about midnight and using masking tape, taped up his dry air cleaner element.. He finally figured that one out and the next day we declared a provisional truce. Carl 08/08/09 From Carl, Draggin' Douglas - It was an "inexpensive evening" (most of the time) Most of my pals from high school had to work while they went to high school and college. This forced most of us to hang onto our cars or buy used cars. As an example I owned the same hand-me-down 57 Chevy from 1957 till 1966. We all still spent way too much of our weekly pay on our cars; ... cam shafts, clutches, transmission parts, and tires ...leaving most of us short on cash all the time. This shortage of funds also made Draggin' Douglas an inexpensive way to show off the latest addition to our cars and entertain ones self. Most of us drove gas guzzling, very high-compression cars, but 100 octane Ethyl was only around 40 cents a gallon, so three or four of us could split the cost of a $6.50 tank of gas and spend all evening using one car. We also would park at various drive-ins, parking lots along Douglas or other designated areas along the "Route" to save gas. On occasion, girls would give us rides in their cars, which also cut down on the gas bill. We ate inexpensive food; Griffs, McDonalds, Nu-Way, Sandy's, Town & Country, KingsX and the TeleTray all had affordable menus.. Plus there was also the possibility of winning $5 or $10 drag racing.. (Of course you also could LOSE $5 or $10 or worse yet break something, so you had to pick on the endless supply of new cars that arrived on Douglas and then only run as hard as necessary to win) There was a local Friday night Horror TV Show, "Nightmare", that came on at midnight and if we were really broke and hungry after Draggin' Douglas, we would end up at my folks house "To watch Rodney & The Host"... of course my mom, who always stayed up late, would feed the whole gang... I ran across this link to a rare old KAKE-TV kinescope of Tom Leahy as "The Host" (also was Major Astro) and Lee Parsons as "Rodney". It was fun stuff!! Carl 08/08/09 Carnut - - Heh, heh, I always frequented Griffs, Sandys and McDonalds, T&C and KingsX were too pricy for me. Oh and we can't forget the Tastee Freeze on south Hillside a lot of south end kids liked to frequent. Also remember KingsX as the only drivein being open 24hrs a day. Think they stayed open for the swing shift crowd from the Aircraft factories, Beech, Boeing and Cessna which were running 3shifts a day. Manys the time I remember Mom coming home from 2nd shift at Boeing and going out to a grocery store that was open 24hrs so she could get her paycheck cashed and get some groceries or going to KingsX for 'Breakfast' at 2am. - - More - -

A Pictorial Narrative of 'Draggin Douglas' from Grove to NuWay Cafe in 2008. 2008 Douglas West from Grove Street to I35 Overpass 2008 Douglas West from I35 Overpass to Hydraulic Intersection 2008 Douglas West towards Hydraulic Intersection 2008 Douglas West Hydraulic to Railroad Underpass and Old Town 2008 Douglas West Hydraulic to Railroad Underpass and Old Town 2008 Douglas at Old Town Entrance 2008 Douglas at Union Station and Railroad Underpass looking West 2008 Douglas at Railroad Underpass looking West 2008 Douglas West from Railroad Underpass to Eaton Hotel 2008 Douglas West from Market Street 2008 Douglas West towards Garvey Building 2008 Douglas West towards Hotel Broadview 2008 Douglas Bridge West Across Arkansas River 2008 Douglas West from Delano Roundel 2008 Douglas West at Delano Roundel 2008 NuWay Cafe on West Douglas Now heading back East on Douglas. 2008 Douglas East to Garvey Building From Hotel Broadview 2008 2008 Douglas East to Garvey Building From Tripodal 2008 Century II Convention Center on West Douglas at Water Street 2008 Holiday Inn Plaza on West Douglas at Water Street 2008 Douglas East from Century II Convention Center 2008 Douglas East to Old Town From St Francis Street 2008 Douglas East to Railroad Underpass From St Francis Street 2008 Union Station East of Railroad Underpass 2008 Douglas East to I35 Overpass From Hydraulic Street 2008 Wichita High School East 2008 Douglas East to College Hill from Grove Street

If anyone has any Draggin Douglas stories they would like to have posted, please email me carnut@carnut.com

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George Carnut McDowell

est. 1996