Last week we stopped at Sonic to get the grandkids some shakes. As I watched the car hops bring out the order for the customers I started to remember about a drive-in restaurant back East called the “Pink Elephant”. It would open up the first week of April and close around the last week of September or if weather permitted as late as the 15th of October.
It was a fantastic place for great food – onion rings, clam cakes, fried clams, steak sandwiches, and Hot Rods. On the weekend nights of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, it would be jammed with cars, hot rods, customs, muscle cars, and regular cars, trucks. There would be street racing every weekend out of the “Pink”.
Someone would show with a “Hot Rod” and would look for someone to race. It didn’t take long before the entire parking lot would empty out and head out for a good road to race. Later, we would all go back to the “Pink” and hang out until it closed, sometimes as late as or as early as 3 a.m.
There were some great cars that went through the “Pink” and one of them was a 1957 Chevy with a bored and stroked 327 with fuel injection, it was called the “Leaper”. It was hard to beat. Some nights there would be 10 to 12 cars willing to race the “Leaper”. But he would only race one or two of them and would easily defeat them.
It was a great place to hang out on weekends. No fights, no drugs, no foul language. It was a great time and place to hang out.
I went back east 3 years ago, the “Pink” was gone; there is a small strip mall there now. Most of the people that hung around there – are all gone. But in the late 60s and early 70s that was the place. I will always relate, hot rods, car hops, pink elephant together! Goodbye “Pink”. Thank you for the memories.
Keep Them Rolling!
Bill