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.

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:

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)

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

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

Hi Carl,

Here's what I sent to whoever has the Sandy's Hamburger site;

Hi,

Steve Mericle

Hey Steve,

Carl

Ok Carl,

Carnut

Hey Chuck,

Later..
Carl

Hey George,

Carl

The Last Ride,

1972 Taco Kid on Douglas at Seneca
Jonny Pate and My Coupes with Troy Pate behind the tire on Jonny's coupe

Carnut

From Carl,

Ski King:

Red Light / White Light

Here Kitty, Kitty...

Carl

From Carl,

Draggin' Douglas - It was an "inexpensive evening" (most of the time)

Carl

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.

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