Bill Haley and His Comets - 1954 - Rock Around the Clock [originally posted on 3/28/2011]

There is an old drive-in burger and malt shop on University Avenue in Saint Paul that opened in 1953. The people of my generation - the “Boomers”- loved it! It was one of the last drive-ins left in Saint Paul.  American

Graffiti featured a drive-in.

Anyhoo, as my generation went to work and started having kids, we neglected places like Porkys for quicker, cheaper fat burgers from Macs and the King. As the Boomers got older and wealthier they built or purchased high buck hot rods, or street rods and on Friday nights hundreds of them cruised University Avenue. 

“Hey, Porky's is still open” and it again became a popular spot for the pot-bellied, balding bunch who would cruise in their $100.000 RIDES!

I would take my boys down on the Ave. We would talk of someday building a street rod. It would take a few years. Joe has had at least 50 cars. He now has a beautiful 1972 Caprice- he named his daughter Caprice. I had a 1967 Cutlass and a 68 c-10 pick up. There are now numerous TV shows of technicians building cars, trucks, tractors, motorcycles. Some feature an over the hill Boomer!

Easy Rider Dennis Hopper is dead. Peter Fonda is in his later 70s. Remember Two Lane Blacktop? The driver was James Taylor. His mechanic was the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson. They would race the GTO Judge driven by Warren Oates. That 55 Chevy was resurrected for American Graffiti. Harrison Ford played Bob Falfa, the sinister character in the black 55. He couldn't sing for shit. Graffiti became a classic.

Anyhoo, this place that builds affordable senior housing for the Boomers, who's average age is now 65, wants to buy Porkys to expand their housing. Screw them old farts. Put them in trailer parks!!!

Porky's Drive-In may be on the way out

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Mark Reilly, Managing EditorDate: Friday, March 25, 2011, 6:50am CDTOwners of the Porky's drive-in restaurant along University Avenue are negotiating a sale to a neighbor, a move that would likely mean the closing of what the Pioneer Press called “one of the city's oldest family-run eateries.”No deal has been signed yet, but owners Nora Truelson and Tryg Truelson are talking with Episcopal Homes, a developer of affordable senior housing that's based next door.The paper suggested that the restaurant, which caters to classic-car enthusiasts with its 1950s vibe, would be hurt by the construction of the Central Corridor light rail line.