Holly's Drive-In (Post, TX)

Road Trip Lunch
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This is where Don "took me to lunch" last June. It was the first day of our Texas-Oregon-Texas Road Trip. 

Don knows I love a drive-in and he knows I love a small town. On that day, he happened to know there was a drive-in, in Post, Texas. 
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C.W. Post's Small Texas Town
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Post is a curious little town. It was founded in 1907, by the man who brought us Post Cereal.

The history is definitely worth Googling. The more I read about Mr. Post's Utopian dream town, the more I want to know. I was glad Don picked this small town to support for our lunch stop.

Holly's Drive-In

It was after 1 pm, when Don pulled off of US 84. Yay! A drive-in, with actual curb service!  

And who was Holly anyway? I was eager to find out.

Inside Dining

It was actually too hot to eat in the car, so we headed inside. I had a feeling the interior hadn't changed much in 50 years. 

The walls in the dining space were covered with framed photos and articles. I was drawn to the table near the family portraits. Was Holly the woman in the large frame, posing with her husband and children? 

Football Photos

While we waited for our food, I studied the popcorn ceiling and painted paneling and the brick-ish walls. This space probably looked pretty much the same when Holly's opened in 1971.

I studied the images on the wall and read the captions... "Matt Holly" and "Coach Holly" I realized quickly, Holly was a last name. 

Burger and Tots!

Before long we were devouring our tasty burger and dog! Much better than fast food lunch!

Don was very excited about his cheeseburger and tots, as you can tell. I had a taste and it reminded me of my favorite Steak-N-Shake burgers.

I was equally excited about my chili cheese dog! I was actually pretty glad I wasn't eating my sloppy lunch in the car!

The Holly's 

After dining beneath the Holly Family, I had some questions when we headed to the counter after our meal.

A very pleasant young woman told us that the Holly Family still owned the drive-in. She pointed to the woman in the portrait and said "Mary is here today!" She went to get her from a small office area.

Mary

Mary was a bit baffled at first, wondering why some diners wanted to meet her. But we ended up having a great chat about the family photos. First she laughed and noted how much younger she looked in the family portrait. Then she frowned and pointed to the empty space between the 2 lower photos.

There were a few minutes of worry about the missing photo of Matt. Mary explained that Matt was the child she was pregnant with, when the family portrait was taken. A photo of Little Matt holding a trophy had been added to the display later. It was placed between the 2 photos of his parents. But where was the portrait of the family's baby?

Matt Rescued

Moments later, Mary's daughter-in-law came to the rescue, holding Matt's smiling face in a broken frame. She said it had fallen recently. Mary fiddled with the frame a bit and fretted over how faded the image was.

She told us that Matt was holding a trophy that he'd gotten while participating in the the annual Mr. Post Contest. (Some kind of "cute kid" contest, I believe) I'm guessing Matt collected quite a few trophies over the years. His mother pointed to the walls and said those were all photos of Matt, when he was a young football player and later a coach. 

Good Stop Good Folks

The lunch rush was over, so Mary was able to fill us in on all the kids and what they were now doing. She was clearly a proud mom and grandmother. Her granddaughter now helps out at Holly's.

Mrs. Holly seemed genuinely pleased that we'd stopped in, at the beginning of our road trip. We told her we would be headed back to Texas in a couple weeks, traveling with our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. She seemed delighted that we might stop in again. She shook our hands and wished us safe travels.
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Unfortunately, we took a different route. It would have been fun to have introduced some of our family to some of Mary's. Maybe another time!
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