McDonald’s, back in the day

Mcdonalds

This is how I remember the first McDonald’s I visited. It was in the early 60’s.  I rode my bike there for their 15 cent hamburgers. It was about a 15 minute ride from my house.  There was no inside dining.  You walked up to one of two walk-up windows and ordered your food.  You got burger, fries and a soda for less than a buck.

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18 thoughts on “McDonald’s, back in the day”

  1. Jon,was that the McD on Manchester? That was the first one I remember in St. Louis. I worked at the Chuckaberger on Page and Pennsylvania when I was in High School (Normandy) in the early 60’s.

  2. Jonco – Actually it was lot less than a buck. The burger was 15 cents, I think the milk shake was 20 cents and the fries were 10 cents. My buddies and I would go AWOL from school at lunch and eat at McDonald’s every day.

  3. Richard, I didn’t remember exactly how much it was in total, but I do recall the 15 cent burgers. I know if we had a buck we were in good shape.

  4. I remember walking home from grade school and if I had a dime I could buy a small coke at Winchell’s donut. If I only had a nickel, the guy behind the counter would sell me a cup of ice.

  5. I have both palm and banana trees in my yard, I dig ’em up every fall. Scott, remember that was the decade of global warming.

  6. Once @ week my Dad took us to Burger Chef in the early 60s. A McD’s opened across the street (looking precisely like that photo), and my Dad was approached about “getting in on the ground floor” and investing in a McD franchise. He didn’t like the food at McD’s, and said that they’d never touch Burger Chef.
    Within two years, Burger Chef was gone…not only from that location but from the entire region, and McD was sprouting on every other corner like weeds. I think that decision was one of his bigger regrets, and he would NEVER EVER talk about it. Mom is still pretty touchy about it too, even after 50 years. Don’t even go there with her.

  7. We also had a Burger Chef for years before there was a McDonald’s in our area. Our first McDonald’s appeared sometime in the mid 70s and Burger Chef must have disappeared sometime in the early 80s. Even as a kid I prefered Burger Chef. They had the best shakes. Too bad they couldn’t stay around.

  8. I remember those old McDs. When I was a kid I wouldn’t eat hamburgers so I was a fan of their filet o fish from way back. I remember those old Burger Chefs too in Ohio

  9. Did you guys in Ohio have Winky’s? I know it was primarily in western Pa. We had one less than a half mile from our house and I never knew what McDonald’s was back then.

    I just learned in the comments from a video on youtube that McDonald’s Big Mac developed in 1967 in Uniontown, Pa was a ripoff of Winky’s Big Wink from 1962: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J52VxXUDQ38

    Hard to find much info or pictures about Winky’s.

    Only pic I could find:

  10. Ummm…Scott….a lot of guys have winkys….not sure if it’s appropriate to talk about it though…..

  11. I remember that even up to the early/mid ’70s they still had commercials advertising change back from your dollar for a burger, fries and coke.

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