History The Pole In Indy

The Pole was a Drive-In restaurant on the west side of Indy.
It was the place to hang out in the 50's and 60's
Plenty of chick chasin' and drag racin'

 

mom used to tell me about that place, as well as al greens, and the tee pee,

 

Al Greens had a drive-in screen and the worlds biggest tenderloin!

The Tee Pee had a Coke called a cherry 99, it was 99% cherry syrup

There was a place called the park-eat on US 40, along with the Blue Ribbon.

(what was your Mom's name, I might know her )

 

there was a place across from the fair grounds, something hi deckers or high deckers....maybe merells.

 

Merrils Hi-Decker
They had a radio disk jockey that was in a tower above the building.
He would play a song, and you listened to it on your radio.
After the song he would do "make it or brake it"
You would turn on your head lights if you liked the song, then he would do the same for those who did not like it. If the "no like's" won, then he would smash the crap out of the record on the air.

The first car I ever saw with 3 strombergs was there.It was a flat black 49 ford with no hood--It was around 1958--that was some badddd stuff then

 

i think the disk jockey went on to do wibc radio, but iam not sure....i can listen to the old stories like that all day long, i here alot from the older guys, and hot rod guys. around here....westside.

 

Spent a lot of time cruising the Pole back in the 50's & 60's.

 

I remember the "Pole" well, met my wife there, in '67. married 40 years to her. Had a lot of good times there.

 

I remember cruising the Pole in the mid 60's in my Black 1965 Plymouth Satelite....the "hot" car there was a bright blue '55 T-Bird that was jacked up way high with mag wheels on it. The Pole wasn't too far from where I lived on 16th street.....then I'd go over and circle the Tee Pee.

 

That T-Bird was John Bachers, he also had a 33 Chrysler with a old Hemi.
(he still has it)

Do you remember the 55 Chevy that had a straight axle, and the guy that drove it wore a cowboy hat ?---Jimmy Fivecoats was that cat--he's still around with the Hi-Winders.

The Hi-Winders CC started up just down the street at Jim Farmer's Sunoco station.

 

Southern Circle, TeePee south, TeePee north, Al Green's, Pole, Frisch's, Jack and Jill's, Knobby's, Merril's Hidecker, Park Eat, Custard Kitchen, one I can't remember the name of on Southeastern Ave., and probably more my old feeble mind don't remember. Those were the days. Kids today have no idea what fun was really like in the 50's and 60's. Gone but not forgotten.

 

I vaguely remember the 55 chevy w/ straight axle. A little water under the bridge to remember them all !

 

I remember being at the Pole with a buddy in a straight axle Chevy II taking me for a wild ride down 16th street! I wonder what happened to that guy?? In either 1964 or 1965 during the National drags I remember a Super stock or factory experimental Dodge or Plymouth taking a tour around the Pole! I can still hear it in my brain!Garry,what about the WIFE good guys ''window on the world"? Remember "she's real fine my 409!

 

I have a newspaper from June of 1952 with an ad in it wanting waitresses for the Pole. I believe it was just opening? What year did the Pole cease being a drive in??

 

This is the Tee Pee drive in on the south side of Indy, and they had one on the north side also.

The Guys on the south side sure liked to race.
This was a stop off on the way to the whiteland barn for the dances.

 

I think the Pole was originally called the North Pole when it opened, then when they moved to 16th street it was just "The Pole"

They may have been open till 68-69, can't remember for sure.
Everybody was in the military, off at school or had gotten married.
It was like the end of American Graffiti in Indy

 

Many trips down hi-way 52 from the Lafayette area to cruise the Pole, and TeePee's the night before going to the drags at Stout Field. There were so many sold lifter 57 Chevys cruisiing around the Pole that the lifter-clatter noise was amazing.

One trip I remember was in a 57 J-2 Olds that the drivers foot was tired so he took turns holding the gas pedal to the floor with the guy riding shotgun.

Another time we were in a 57 Chevy racing a 57 T-Bird and got pulled over by a cop and had to go into Lebanon to a Justice of the Peace. We went on our way after that to the Fox Burlesque, actually gave money to a wino to buy us some beer, and even more suprising he came back with the beer.

Spent one evening in a pink and white J-2 olds convert racing down the rain-slick streets of down-town Indy with some friends of a friend. All had huge switch-blade knives and liked to brandish them out the windows down around 38th and College. Not my cup of tea........

Stout Field drags were a great time and George Montgomery raced his Caddy powered Ford coupe there frequently.

Ahhh, dances at the Whiteland barn, busy place too.

Parking right on 16th street the night before the Indy 500 was always a great time too. Uhhhhh, as best as I can remember.
Ol Blue

 

I remember Carl Schunkes 40 Ford ( he still has it ) running a blown olds engine early in the evening. Later that same night he was back at the pole with the same car running a chevrolet. Had to be a world record at changing engines.
I got a ticket leaving the pole in my 67 SS Chevelle, the cop said be in court on xx day. I said i will be in Viet Nam then . He didnt seem to care. needless to say i wasnt there at court, i was over seas hoping they ( Indianapolis Police) would come get me for not showing up.
Got caught with a warrant many years later cost me $150 to get a lawyer to get it done.
I heard the story about you driving a white 55 chevrolet with skinny weld wheels on the front rolling a tire off the rim down there somewhere turning a corner too fast.
Gas station on layeffette road would let you use the lift to open headers and put the slicks on for .50 cents.

As the dickster said , kids today dont have a clue how much fun that was.

 

The funniest event I ever saw at the Pole was when my buddy "Koon Dog" knocked the kryptonite out of an acid head dressed like Superman. This Super Hero was running through the parking lot acting like he was flying. Superman would stop and look at people as they drove by, and I told "Koon Dog"---did you see that, superman gave you the "bird".... The "Koon Dog" was a monster of a cat, and he proceeded to chase Superman around the lot, and people were crackin' up, Eventually superman ran out of steam--and with one famous koon dog round house---Superman was stripped of his super powers.

Koon Doggy hopped back in his 55 sedan delivery, and we beat it out before Jonesie the cop nailed him

 

what an awesome thread.

 

Hey, keep it going guys - I was 8 years too late - and missed the fun!!

 

Definately keep the stories rolling. I spent my youth in the Indy (late '60s-1980) and a heard few good spills about the happenings of the early era, but I was too young to have personally experienced them.

 

O.K. boys and girls, here's another tale from the Pole.

In the mid 60's the serious racing would take place late at night
on a un opened part of the inter-state behind what is now Lafayette
Square Shopping center (it was a corn field then)

A guy from the south side named Benjie showed up at the Pole in an altered wheel base Dodge, with big steel caster wheels mounted on the back bumper. The buzz was in the air, and we had the Slicks in the trunk of a 65 Dodge, it had a 426 Wedge that was ready to Go, and so were we.

The cars were staged in the cool night air---- the "arms" dropped, and so did the hammers--two big mopars with open fender well headers butchered the quiet of the night.

The BITE of those Goodyears on fresh cement was great, and as the cars shot forward, I looked over and the Altered wheel base car pointed its head lights towards the sky--he was pullin' us with this front wheels in the air.
Once he got a length on us he stood the thing back on the casters--sparks were flying off the steel wheels,and flames were blowing out the wheel well headers. The Mopar finally got back on all fours, and the chase was on, but the "Hole Shot" was to much for our wedge to recover from.---It was tuff for me and my partner "HUNCH" to lose to a south sider, but the show from behind was so good, it was almost worth it.

 

wow what a story, anyone know about the place off of Lafayette rd, i think it was 79th st, that people would race, i have seen the start and finish line marked off, years ago, i remember that the sides of the road where they race where to steep for anyone to be sitting their to catch them racers...

 

I don't rember racing on 79st. but some of us used to run on west 56 th. st. where Eagle Creek Park is now, and also on Cossell rd. on the west side. As my house then was the meeting place for the street drags. Our mail box was the finish line and the start line was the 30 mph speed limit sign by the gas station at the point of Cossell rd. and Michigan st. Does anybody remember the Mug and Bun on west 10 st. which is still there and Chucks A&W that was 10 st. and Lynhurst dr.

 

56 th street late at night got its fair share of tire squeallin'
I never liked it, to narrow ,with rises that would get spooky at speed.

Jimmy Hodges got killed there in 65 when his chevy left the road.

yeah street racing is dumb--but I admit, so were we

 

cossell rd and michigan st, is in my neck of the woods...

 

I liked it when the races on Cossel Road went towards the one lane bridge by the cemetary--never a doubt who won. Getting stopped before you crossed Tibbs and slid into the Mental Hospital was exciting ( maybe there is a message there )

 

unless you where cought buy a cop named hurst