by Leo Foster

Leo Foster, now retired, did part-time electrical work for Al Green’s. He came to know all three of the Green siblings who operated the restaurant: Nate, Belle, and Al, the eldest. He never met the other two siblings, Morris Green, who was Physician in Chief at Riley Hospital from 1968 to 1987, and a fifth sibling, a doctor who moved to Florida.

Al's dad had the drive in built for him when Al got out of the army. I believe he was a cook and served during WW2. The restaurant was built on US 40 which was a major road into Indianapolis at the time. It also was on the edge of town so it caught most of the traffic into town. I don't know who built it.

The original parcel of land was from US 40 South to the railroad. He had a house just north of the railroad which he lived in. The parcel also ran from Shortridge Road West to Shadeland Ave. The cloverleaf at Shadeland and US 40 was the first in the state.

Al being the oldest of the five children made him the boss. I vaguely remember hearing that Al's dad and mother came over from Russia. They settled at 9th and Park Ave. He had his store on the corner and lived in the rest of the building. Nate's apartments were at 9th and Park Ave, from 9th to 10th St. on Park, also on and East St. The office was the original grocery store where their dad started the business. He used to walk to the farmers market to buy his produce for the store. 

The Greens were practicing Jews but I never noticed any anti-Semitism around the restaurant.

The basement was used for storage and food preparation. There were no tunnels around the place, only working and storage places in the basement. The tunnel on the East was about 10 ft. wide and 40 ft. long and was used for storage of dry products, such as paper cups, sugar, etc. The one on the West was complex. The main part was about 50 ft. long and 12 ft. wide. There were stairs on the West end to bring in supplies. There were extra basements off the main one. One on the West and North end was refrigerated and was used for potato storage. They would get about 10,000 pounds at a time. Further East was another refrigerated room for lettuce, oranges and other produce. South of the main basement was a large walk-in freezer. About 10 ft. wide, 7 ft. high and 35 ft. long, for ice cream, meat etc. Further to the West was the freezer room. There they made the ice cream, up to 500 gallons at a time, made with Lady Borden mix. They used two very large compressors to run the freezer and ice cream machine.

Maintenance on the basements was no problem as long as the driveway above was kept covered with asphalt and tarred. 

I don't know just how wealthy they were. I'm sure they had plenty of cash. They never spent much. There should have been a big cash settlement when they sold the house and all the land South of the drive-in to Highland Appliances. (NOTE: Probably some time around the early 1980s.)

Nate was the easiest and Belle was the hardest to get along with. I really had no problem with any of them, but Belle gave all the car hops hell. I still can’t believe that Belle lived in the basement, there just weren’t enough facilities there to for a person to live.

Al said he never had any competition, his food did it all. His big tenderloins and hamburgers were the talk of the town.

Al recognized that there were other drive-ins in competition, but they were far enough away to really not be any major problem. There was a circuit which included the Pole, Knobbys, The Tepee, Southern Triangle and the Southern Circle.

The sit-down section of the drive-in was closed before I started working there.

I never heard of any plans to expand to other locations.

There was usually an off-duty Sheriff or Police officer around at nights on the weekends. There were very few fights that I ever heard about. As far as I know those things were more common at the Pole on West 16th St.

Knowing the family was fine by me. I had no trouble with any of them until I quit, then they badmouthed me a lot. This was not unusual, they did that to every one who quit on them.

Al rented almost all of the films that he ran. He owned a lot of them outright, but not all. Most of his films were cartoons, about 200 reels with about 4 cartoons per reel. All were 16 mm films.

Sometimes he would have special events. He would shut down the movies, have a live band or a jukebox with dancing in the parking lot. These events were all at night so I never went to any of them.

His customers came from all over the Southeast side of town. Sometimes some of the plants would order sandwiches to be picked up for lunch. In his latter days he had a sign posted that said "same day service."

UNIGOV didn't affect his business as much as just the time period itself. Night-time drive-ins were going out of style. (NOTE: Unigov was the program that combined the Indianapolis city government with Marion County government some time in the mid to late 60s.)

The decline of the drive-in was natural. People were staying at home and watching TV. They may go to a fast food place for some food, but then they would then go back home to eat.

People would come great distances for his tenderloins and hamburgers.

No documentaries were done that I know about, but he was mentioned a few times in the newspaper as a very good place to go for a good sandwich and fries. He was commended a few time for having a very clean facility. Even though so much was in the basement, most of the work areas were stainless steel.

There was no Mafia or crime connections around the place. Al just was not that kind of person.

The opening of Eastgate made very little difference with his business. Most of his trade was with young people out for an evening.

Belle just had a good memory for people's name. She never wrote them down, but if she heard your name she would remember it the next time she saw you. She also was a certified dietician.

I have no idea why Belle could have ended up living in the basement of the drive-in. I'm sure there was plenty of money for her to live any life she chose. If not she had two brothers who had plenty to help her out. (NOTE: Some have speculated that Al Green negotiated a settlement with the state as part of the sale of land for the Shadeland / US 40 intersection whereby the state paid Al a certain amount of money for as long as the restaurant was kept open, thus the incentive to occupy the property well past its natural life.)

Chief died a short time after I quit. He was a real fine gentleman. I don't know of any of his family.

I did meet Nate's wife. She was a carhop before they got married. They had a little girl. Don't know too much after that. I don't remember her name.

I don't remember Belle’s address, only that it was in Broad Ripple. Al also had an old Model T sitting on blocks in Belle's garage. He never started it but would sometimes go out and just sit in it.

I quit in 1976, just after Nate died. I had just had enough of part-time work. I did all the maintenance on the projectors but never ran them for the movies.

Those are my recollections to the best of my knowledge. When a person gets to be 80 years old their memory is the second thing to go. I forget the first.