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No place for a nice Catholic girl |
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It was a hangout for the Warren Central crowd back in the late 50's. We had Jack & Jills on North Shadeland, Laughner's on Washington St (Irvington Plaza), Knobby's at Shadeland and 38th St (home of The Big Knob), and the Blue Ribbon on 10th St. The Tepee on Fall Creek was for Shortridge, Broad Ripple and like that. The Pole at Lafayette Road and 16th was for Washington HS and Ben Davis. The southside Tepee was for Sacred Heart and Southport, etc. Al Green's was known then as the place you could get laid quite easily and you DID NOT TAKE A NICE CATHOLIC GIRL TO AL GREEN'S. The main reason we did not go there was because we heard that the tenderloins were made from tripe and not pork. Later, in the 60's, the drive in at Emerson and 10th, I forget the name, was very big. Of course, the real big drive inn in the late 50's was Merril's (sp?) High Decker on 38th Street across from the fairgrounds entrance. It had the booth on top where DJ's spun records on live radio shows. On the weekends it was very tough to get in there. All gone now!
by Anonymous |
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I was one of the many, many kids at this drive in, went to Tech HS in the last of the 50's, and graduated in '61. Seeing this website really brought tears to my eyes, many, many happy memories at Al Greens. I didn't know all of the history of the place, but really, really enjoyed the tenderloins .... Our cruisin' circuit on Friday & Saturday nights was Al Greens to Jack & Jills to the TeePee then White Castle on 38th .... In my '51 Crown Vic Ford ... all the guys piled in, gas was 17.9 a gallon, most tossed a quarter into the pot and we cruised all night .... A great way to grow up in Indy!!!
Don Douggie, Tech Class of '61
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One Hot Summer Night, 1957 |
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One Hot Summer Night in '57
One hot summer night in 1957, Bill Logan, my old Manual High school buddy and I, went out to the Southern Circle in his new 2-tone blue 57 Chevy Bel-Air 2-dr hardtop, just looking for one more night of drag racing. Earlier that day we had just installed two 4-barrel carbs and intake manifold on Bill’s car. (That same afternoon Bill had sold his old single four-barrel carb and manifold to Delbert Cambridge, with some bad results for Delbert!)
As we drove around the Southern Circle we saw George Herman in his souped-up 1957 all-white hardtop 4-door Chevy. We pulled in beside him thinking he might want to race. But it was not Herman. Whoever it was, Bill asked him, “Wanna drag race that car buddy?” “Can’t do that, I already got too many speeding tickets, but I will let your friend (me) drive my car in a drag race,” was his answer. WTF??? I was only too happy to do it. My wheels at that time were a 46 Caddie that was slow as a dog.
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Cruisin the Circuit, 1957 |
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 Al's was packed on Friday and Saturday. Traffic was so bad that you could only get in by going in from the west and turning right. The police were there to direct traffic and keep people from trying to enter from the wrong way. You drove in and zig-zagged up and down the rows to see who was there. I think there were 5 or 6 rows. In the late '50's and early '60's would have bands set up in the northwest corner of the lot. You had to get there early if you wanted to be in the first row. After the band got there the first row was closed to traffic. During regular times the first row was mainly for single/married women, with lots of pick-up action!
Al's used to get backed up onto eastbound Washington and northbound Shadeland. Laughners on Washington Street to the west was about the same for traffic. So was Jack and Jill's. All of them always had cops around, double on Friday/Saturday. Al's took the prize for volume, double or triple the rest of them on peak nights.
Once I started working at Ford it kind of screwed up my evenings, working from 3:00 pm to 12:00 am I would get to Al’s about 12:15 am. Things would still be happening till about 3-4 am, then everybody would head for the all night restaurants to finish up.
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Peak Years