Talk:The Circle

In the 1960's and 1970's

FYI to anyone who's interested: when I was growing up in Myrtle Grove during the 1960's and 1970's, "the Circle" always referred specifically to that triangle formed by Lillian Highway, Old Corry Road, and New Warrington Road (long before it was connected to Fairfield Drive; it used to dead-end at Mobile Hwy).

The Circle was the site of the well-patronized Chicken Box drive-in, which sat in the center of the triangle surrounded by a red dirt parking lot that filled the triangle. Sometime in the mid-1970's it was paved. The Chicken Box was drive-in only, no seating inside. Young women (and maybe a few in their 30's or 40's) were employed as carhops to take your order and bring the food to your car, attaching a collapsible tray to the driver's window. As best I recall, their uniform was black slacks and a white blouse.

I don't recall my family ever actually getting a chicken box there, but I do remember stopping lots of times for hamburgers or hot dogs, with french fries, Cokes, milk shakes, etc. There were a number of big oak trees dotted around the parking lot, which provided helpful shade in those summers before automobile air conditioning was common.

There was also a Shrimp Box drive-in further down on New Warrington Road, about where it peeled off from Navy Boulevard, close to the Landmark Skating Rink. I always assumed the two restaurants were owned by the same people since the architecture was very similar - a squarish building with high wooden fence-like panels - either white or light blue, I think - around the roofline and similar neon signage. But I don't know that for certain.

Anyway, in the 60's and 70's if you said something was at or near the Circle, it meant very specifically that particular triangle of land. The back side of Martine's fronted on the Circle. Whataburger (first in P'cola, I think) was directly across New Warrington Road from the Chicken Box. A Kinney's shoe store was to the south across Lillian Hwy at the corner of NWR, where there was a traffic light. And a number of small businesses were dotted here and there in the vicinity including Circle Lanes Bowling Alley which is still there today.

I can't document all this so I'm not putting it on the article page, but thought I would make note here for posterity. Textorus 23:11, 28 December 2010 (CST)

Thanks for this! — dscosson • talk  08:09, 29 December 2010 (CST)