photo courtesy Harding University
It’s strange what you can find in old high school yearbooks. While flipping through the 1968 edition of the Harding Academy Shield, I came across a rather blurry advertisement for the Filler Burger Drive-in, which was a popular hangout for high-school kids in Frayser.
Which, as you probably know, isn’t really anywhere near Park and Cherry, where Harding is located.
Maybe Harding students drove all the way there, too. Maybe those Filler Burgers were simply that good.
The ad shows a rather humdrum little building, topped with hand-painted signs showing the tasty burgers you could enjoy at the Filler Burger. It’s too bad the photo cuts off the head of the mascot, perched atop the street sign, which was apparently a person or some kind of creature wearing a sweater adorned with an “F.”
The ad caption explains, “FILLERBURGER DRIVE-IN is the place to stop for a snack when you are looking for good food. Drop in and see at 2088 Frayser Blvd. for a real treat after the movie, or take home a sack full of hamburgers.”
I’m always curious to see if any of these little eateries have survived, but a quick Google “drive” to 2088 Frayser Blvd. turned up this little office building (below) which doesn’t seem to resemble the old drive-in, no matter how hard you squint at it.
But if you ARE squinting at the ad, take a careful look at the white concrete wall that runs behind the old drive-in. Now look at the far-right side of the present-day picture (behind that SUV). Is that a portion of the same white wall that has somehow survived?
