Sandy's Salina, Kansas

I was a Sandy's bum as my mom used to call us..........After work or after a date I would hurry to get there , to get a good parking stall to back my car into and to not miss any of the conversation. There were some real nice guys there like Bob Saltzman, Steve Rivir, Steve Thorpe and Ted Ludes.. Very rarely was there ever any girls..........We always hoped for some but rarely saw any.........In 1965 and 1966 it looked like straight out of American Graffiti even before the movie came out....We might be sitting on the fenders of our cars, listening to the Beach Boys and speaking to kids who drove by. We were so cool, We really were..

All the parents of the Catholic boys just knew it was a cesspool of hoodlums after midnight at Sandy's...Actually there were some hoodlums from time to time but generally we just sat around and smoked cigarettes, maybe had an occasional quart of beer Falstaff as it was the cheapest...It was there that most of us learned to blow smoke rings.. Only the coolest could do that....We had lots of intellectual conversations about Viet Nam, Catholic school , girls, and anything else we wanted to discuss in detail...It was, after my weekly date, the weekly highlight.

I only ever got into one fight there and that was with Lynn Buhler and it was before Midnight...I saw several fights there but most of them were with Dean Endsley and Duane Gust. Dean would always kick his tail at every opportunity..... I spent many a night there watching the sun come up.........It was so much fun.... Almost every night we made it to Sandy's we went to the Bee Cafe to eat breakfast, unless we were broke then we went to Fred Biekers dads 5th Street Cafe...It was Free there..

Some nights there would be 20 or 30 people there, and of course Dan Carlins family pet "Socrates" the family mutt........We all got to know each other .. There were some very strong friendships made there...Some that have lasted this long.............I was there the night the kid got killed there in a fight.. Boy my Mom was deathly against me going there for a while so we all went to the old Sears store and sat.. It was not the same without the rest of the gang so soon we returned....

Every so often just for something different we might take a lap down Santa Fe and hurry back to Sandy's hoping some one new had shown up that night.. Sometimes Jerry Ryan would show up in the Hearse. That was very cool.. I never even heard the word marijuana at anytime while sitting in Sandy's from Midnight till 6 A.M. for any of those many many nights. There certainly never was any use of it to our knowledge, but definitely there was never any use by any our classmates, This I swear!!!

It was the cheapest place to go if you were broke....Burgers were 19 cents, fries 10 or 15 cents, cokes 10 cents.......If you had a couple dollars you could put 1 dollars worth of gas in , buy a pack of smokes, and have enough to eat something later in the night and never move your car. It was not a place to take your girlfriend to, and no one ever did. I could only afford one date per weekend, and that was plenty, since I had Sandy's to fall back on.......

We even developed friendships which I still have today with the local cops. The ones we knew then are retired now but now closer than ever.. One of them even worked for me for a couple years...

The usual gang of Sacred Heart Kids was Carlin, Bieker, Me, Larry Martin, Mike Moylan, Bill Vering, Dan Breault, Jerry Ryan and once in a while Steve Gans. Mrs. Gans would drive through once in while if Steve was late. He was so embarrassed. We actually thought it was pretty cool. We bridged the gap with the Salina High Boys like Saltzman, Rivir, Ludes, Webster, They just fit right in and were welcomed to do just that.

Would I allow my kids to do the same thing, sit in Sandy's all night. No way.... If you were one minute late in my house you may be grounded for a month, and have no phone calls, no visitors, etc. It was not a pretty site and it happened only a few times, but my kids were quick learners...I once grounded my oldest daughter for the entire summer ( she reminded me of me) on the first day of her summer vacation. That was way too severe but I never caved in after the punishment was set. Never.. She was mad at me for years but she knew the rules and then so did her sisters.

Sandy's was one of my favorite things and I would not change any events that ever happened there and I am so happy for the time I was allowed to spend there. It may have not been time well spent but it was time spent well....

Collin Francis

One of the original goals of this website was to find a Sandy's building still in existance. Since the vast majority of Sandy's were changed into Hardees between 1972 through 1973 and were subsequently torn down and replaced along the way, it was unknown to many if an original building still existed. Salina's Sandy's was turned into Hardees but at some point it did not continue. Hardees never upgraded the building and when it went out of business, this incredible building was preserved now into its fourth decade.

Collin Francis has now obtained legend status. He has presented the first pictures of an existing Sandy's building. For those who remember the buildings and for those who have seen the pictures, the sight of the pictures brings changing thoughts to mind. One first is amazed to see a Sandy's for the first time in years. Then the reality of the once vibrant bright building now turned into a somber brown color really makes you sad. However, it is fantastic to once again see a Sandy's and you can see where the building could once again be back to original form after restoration. One thing to point out is that Sandy's started as a walk up drive-in. Doors were added along with a walk-in order area along the way. As the business grew, more expansion took place. Sandy's classic trademark roof fins began to disappear as the building itself grew outward. When you look at the pictures, look at the roof-line. The parts of the roof that jut out on the left and the right are the original fins that helped make Sandy's famous. Finally, more seating was added which made Sandy's a sit-down restaurant. You can see the exact same metamorphis with McDonald's and the other restaurants of the 1950's and 60's.

If you were to take Salina's Sandy's building and scale back the exterior walls, you would be able to re-create the original walk up drive-in. With the expansion to sit down dining, the building unfortunately lost some of its charm. Sandy's was heading in the right direction in 1972 when they re-designed the buildings (see the franchisee information section on the home page for a concept picture).

Again, huge special thanks to Collin for these pictures. Incredible.