By Scott Mills
Little Pigs of America was a barbecue chain known which took pride in its “secret ‘n’ zesty” sauce. According to this article, they started in the early 1960s and went bankrupt in 1967, which means my 1966 NRA catalog was one of a select few to list the place.
Scott Mills has been busy with his novel-in-progress, Supertsar, and the complementary graphic novel, Terrible: Tsar Ivan IV. Follow the Supertsars blog for more info.
Apparently, Yoda’s Big Boy was one of the earliest Shoney’s restaurants. It later merged with Lendy’s, also of Salem. Back when it was Yoda’s competitor, Lendy’s was simultaneously a Big Boy and a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Confused? That makes two of us.
I got the above info from the Lendy’s section of oldroanoake.net, which contains plenty of pictures. This page shows Col. Sanders (in person and in sign form) in front of a Big Boy, along with a newspaper ad for “Shrimp, golden fried the Yoda way”. For a picture of the actual Yoda’s building, scroll down this page. Spoiler alert: not as cool as the drawing, but it does have a Big Boy statue.
Most importantly: YES, they gave out Big Boy Comics!
I’m not sure who drew this one. I seem to remember the artist’s last name was Yoder, but maybe that’s just me seeing “J.Y.” in the signature and wanting a Yoda drawing by a Yoder. Ideas, anyone?
by John Peters
The Pixie Kitchen operated from 1953 to 1985 and is pretty thoroughly memorialized on the internet. If you visit Lincoln County, Oregon, you can see memorabilia from the restaurant on display at the museum. Stay at the Whistling Winds Motel and request the Pixie Kitchen room!
John Peters has been featured previously on this blog. He’s moved his comics to mooncowcomics.com, so follow him there!
by Jennifer Hachigian Jerrard
Hey, did you know you can read 4 full issues of Jen’s minicomic Pocket Editor online? You totally can, and probably should!
The Hex Diner was mentioned in Jack Edward Shay’s 2012 book Bygone Binghamton: Remembering People and Places of the Past as part of a list of defunct restaurants that “deserve a final nod of recognition before they pass completely into oblivion.” It was also called Bo-Dan’s at some point.
Want ads for the diner show up in various scanned issues of the Binghamton Press from the late 1950s through the ’60s, including this one from 1960 (pdf), calling for a waitress to do “night work”. Presumably that’s a euphemism for putting hexes on people.
Side note: I’m fascinated by old classifieds. The bluntness of some of these employers and landlords’ ads (pre-equal employment/fair housing laws) makes for compelling—if off-putting—reading. Plus, the linked page above has a layout artist hiring himself out for $4/hr and a Nancy strip to boot!
by Sean Bieri
Sean Bieri said (and I think he meant for this to apply for the previous sketch in the series as well)
I feel like I should apologize somehow…
Sean is no stranger to this site. No further information is available about Christ’s A&W.