The gathering spot for most of North Lewisburg's teens in the 1960s and 1970s was The Hiway 559 Coffee Shop, located on Sycamore Street in the business district of the town. The site was previously occupied by a restaurant which went by several different names over the years.
In the 1940s, Jake and Vada Lease were the owners-operators. The place was well-known for its homemade pies, and home-cooked meals, carefully prepared by Vada. The restaurant of this era holds a special place in my heart - it was here in 1943 that my father first met my mother (who was a waitress there) over a piece of Vada's famous chocolate cream pie. One thing led to another, and on December 15th of that year my folks were married in a small private ceremony in Unionville Center, Union County, Ohio.
As a young boy in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Mom took me to the restaurant on a regular basis, although she had not worked there for a number of years. (My father died as a result of wounds received in action in the Philippine Islands during World War II when I was just a little over two months old). Mom had maintained a friendship with Jake and Vada, and they always seemed happy to see us when we stopped by. Often, Mom purchased one of Vada's pies to take home with us.
The Duffy family operated the restaurant later in the 1950s. I was a schoolmate of Delores Duffy for a few years, so I stopped occasionally at the restaurant for a quick cherry or vanilla Coke, served from the soda shop area of the establishment, while walking from school to my home at the north end of Sycamore Street.
Claudine Dunham, daughter of Claude and Dorothy Dunham of Woodstock, took over ownership of the restaurant in the late 1950s, remodeling the place a bit, and changing the name to The Hiway 559 Coffee Shop. The place was named for the state highway, State Route 559, which bisected the town via Sycamore Street.
Claudine had married a fellow named Vallery, but they had later divorced. She and her two sons, Mike and Tom Vallery, lived in an apartment directly above the restaurant. Mike was several years older than me; Tom was about three years older than me and became a friend over a period of time. In later years, he helped teach me to drive in his old 1949 Chevy convertible.
Claudine was later married to a guy named Kenneth Burlisle, so she went by that last name for a number of years. I believe that marriage ended in divorce, but the details of the time escape my present-day memory.
The restaurant was a busy place, providing breakfast, lunch and dinner meals, as well as catering to the teen traffic of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries and fountain Cokes. A regular crowd of men, primarily made up of area farmers and nearby factory workers, gathered in the restaurant for breakfast or at least a hot cup of coffee. At lunch time, the men who were employed at the Louden Brothers Tool & Die Company, a local business which was just a block or so away from the restaurant, stopped by. At this time, I was a student at North Lewisburg Elementary School, a few blocks away on Maple Street. Kids who went to school there had a few options when it came to lunch: they could bring a sack (or metal lunchbox) meal from home, walk across the street to take their meal in the basement cafeteria of the high school, skip the meal entirely, or walk the short distance "downtown" to The Hiway 559 Coffee Shop. I chose to do the later because I cared very little for the idea of a sack lunch, or for the bland, tasteless meals which were served in the cafeteria. Besides, I was more than a bit intimidated by the older high school students who ate (and bullied) in the cafeteria. So, I opted to make the walk to the restaurant, eat a quick lunch, and return to class at the school.
Mom had a good, friendly relationship with Claudine, whom she had known for many years. In the 1950s, my Mom and stepfather, Putt Forsythe, operated the local movie theater which was located on south Sycamore Street, beside Lionel Grauman's auto repair shop. Their supplier for the popcorn kernals used to prepare the theater's popcorn was purchased from Claudine's father, Claude Dunham. We made a weekly trip in our car to Claude's home in Woodstock to pick up that week's popcorn supply.
Mom was able to establish a "charge account" for me at The Hiway 559 Coffee Shop. When I went there for lunch, Claudine would take my order and write it out on a small pad. She kept the daily sheets until the end of the week when Mom would stop by to pay my lunch "tab." It was a great arrangement, and I felt very privileged. I was such a regular customer of the restaurant that once Claudine saw me enter the front door, she immediately began preparing what she knew would be my order - a cheeseburger with mustard and pickle, french fries, and a large cherry Coke from the fountain. I merely walked to one of the booths, took my seat, and waited just a few minutes for my order to be served. Often, I followed it up with a slice of one of Claudine's coconut cream pies. My mouth salivates to this day with the memory of those pies!
Once in awhile, when Mom went to pay my bill at the end of the week, she would find that there were no charges for one or two lunches. She asked Claudine about this, and learned that other regulars of the lunch time crowd - namely the guys from Louden Brothers Tool & Die Company - picked up the tab for my lunch those days. I didn't know this for a long, long time until I was a few years older. I learned then that Orley Mesler, one of the tool and die machinists, often paid for my lunch. It was a nice gesture, not appreciated until a lot of time had passed by. Orley was a great guy, a truly skilled worker, and exceptionally good at his hobby - woodworking. Some homes in the North Lewisburg - Urbana area are graced with furniture pieces, wooden bowls, or other items which were handcrafted by Orley Mesler. Still later, Orley, a widower, married my cousin, Betty Ruth Evans Dixon, a widow.
There was a juke box in the restaurant, and it was usually alive with the sounds of rock and roll during the afternoons when teens began to gather there. Claudine was kept busy preparing the many orders of burgers and fries, Cokes and other fountain drinks which seemed to go well with the music. There was a constant level of chatter as teens talked about school, friends, girl or boy friends, upcoming events, the most recent football or basketball game, or other conversations about current events. At the end of the seating area, near the kitchen, Claudine had installed a pinball machine. There was usually a waiting line of guys who were anxious to drop their nickels into the machine and take their turns at the flippers. It was a busy place, and one of the few places where teens could gather to while away the weeknights and weekends when there were no activities at the school.
Romances budded and bloomed at The Hiway 559 Coffee Shop as dates were made for upcoming sports events, or school dances, or those occasional trips from town to Urbana to catch a movie at the Gloria Theater or Salem Auto Drive-in Theater. Pizza was introduced to the kids' tastebuds about this time. Most people had been content to enjoy them at home, created from "scratch" using one of the popular Chef Boy-Ar-Dee pizza kits. Pizza parties were popular on Friday or Saturday nights at local homes, a few guys and girls gathering to savor the delightful tastes. Claudine introduced pizzas to her restaurant, and they soon became quite popular. Hot slices of pepperoni or cheese pizzas could be found in booth after booth during those nighttime hours.
Claudine operated The Hiway 559 Coffee Shop for 35 successful years. Many hundreds of customers passed through the door and consumed untold quanties of 'burgers, fries, Cokes, coffee, home baked pies, chili, and the other wonders which came from her kitchen. A couple of generations of patrons helped to make the restaurant the place to be at all hours of the day or night. - Claudine died in 1997.
In recent years, others have attempted to operate a restaurant from that same location. Operators have come and gone as tastes have changed, and as motor vehicles have compressed the distances from North Lewisburg to Marysville or Urbana. Sadly, the restaurant caught fire in 2009, and most of the interior was destroyed. As of this writing (December 2010) it has not reopened. I'm sure there are many folks in town who miss the accessibility of the place, and the good times they enjoyed there. Hopefully, some new entrepreneur will see the need for creating a new dining facility in town.
