Sandy's 2420 E. Douglas, Wichita, Kansas

Sandy's fan Ron McEwen remembers Sandy's in Wichita!

Thanks for your fun site about Sandys. There were two Sandys that I specifically remember in Wichita. There was one at 13th St. and Rochester, across the street from North High School. Needless to say a lot of kids from North High hung out there. I graduated in 1967.

I also remember the Sandys on Douglas St. and Grove. It was near East High School, that we considered our arch enemies at that time. My friends and I spent countless hours cruising back and forth on Douglas. We called it "dragging Douglas". Met a lot of girls, got a lot of speeding tickets.

Thanks again,

Ron McEwen

Topeka, Ks

Sandy's on Douglas was known as Sandy's East and was location #40! Sandy's on 13th Street was known as KEN-MAR and the address was 4601 e. 13th st. The location number was Sandy's #123.

07/20/2007 ... Sandy's fan Gavin Auchterlonie was a Sandy's owner!

Hi….. I had started working for Sandy ’s @ the Douglas Store in 1965 after graduating from High school in California . At that time Herschel Thompson was the manager with Larry Wilson as one of his assistant managers. I worked for both of them. Larry Wilson hired me @ the Ken Mar store as a manager trainee & I managed the S. Seneca store. I think I took over the store when Dave Lester moved to the Downtown store @ 201 Douglas . I will have to look but I think I have an Earl Nightingale tape called ‘Win with Sandy ’s”. I have lots of stories and was even a stock holder in Sandy ’s of Ark City . There was 10 of us & we became stockholders in that restaurant in Arkansas City , Kansas . We later traded that stock for stock ownership in a Corporation called Kan-Okla, Inc. They were a corporation that began building new & buying existing Kansas & Oklahoma Sandy’s / Hardee’s Fast Food Restaurants. At one time we operated 59 Hardee’s 10 of which were purchased from the group that owned the Wichita restaurant called, The’ Wichita Group’. Operated by Bernard “Bernie” Markoskie of Peoria, Il.

07/20/2008 ... Sandy's fan Jerry Tuttle writes

Hi, I also worked part-time at Sandy's from 1960-61 as a HS. student. Hershel Thompson, big fellow, was the manager at Pawnee store? Then I opened the 'new' store on Douglas across from East High. I started as the night manager but didn't last long with first year College demands. Made $3.37 an hour as manager, WOW !

Did everything, Remember counter work as we didn't have adding machines just our heads? Of course pretty easy, 15 cent Hamburgers, 10 cent fries, 20 cent shakes and 10 or 15 cent drinks. Remember the toasted buns, we used those wood boards for pressure on the grill. Cooked 12 or 24 or 48 rush hour burgers at a time. It was fast and busy.

Fun remembering.

Jerry Tuttle

01/18/2009 ... Mike Levand wrote

Somewhere on you Sandy's site, I read someone who claimed to identify the location of the First White Castle in Wichita..............they are incorrect.

Below is a reference from the Ohio Historical Society that identifies such correctly.

Thank you for contacting the Ohio Historical Society. Please see the “Corporate History” portion of the White Castle System, Inc., Records finding aid at http://www.ohiohistory.org//resource/archlib/collections/msscoll/mss991/corphistory.html. The first paragraph states that Walter Anderson opened three hamburger stands in Wichita between 1916 and 1920. The first restaurant with a building opened in March 1921. This would have been known as White Castle #4 in Wichita . White Castle #4 was located at 110 West First Street in downtown Wichita . I’ve included the other restaurants opened in 1921 & 1922 in Wichita below.

Wichita Castle #5 opened April 1921 on 110 S Francis St
Wichita Castle #6 opened December 1921 on Kellogg & Douglas
Wichita Castle #7 opened December 1921 on 119 S Water St
Wichita Castle #8 opened January 1922 on 1220 E. Douglas

07/29/2009 ... Sandy's fan Steve Mericle wrote;

Hi, locate East High yearbooks from ’65 to ’68. One of those years they had a photo of what was reported to be a "race riot" at the Sandy’s at Douglas and Grove. As I recall the event it was an altercation between North and East High students. Both schools having a pretty much equal number of black and white students it got called wrong. My recollection is that a fight happened after a football game that left hard feelings with some North High students, enough so that they came over to Sandy’s early in the afternoon on a school day and a lot of us East High guys skipped out of our last period class to "go have a burger". My yearbooks were misplaced during one of my many moves over the years or I would send the photo’s myself. Look for one of the East High football players showing fine kicking form on one of his own vice principals who was there in an attempt to defuse the situation.

Steve Mericle

01/31/2010 ...

My brother and I worked at the Standard (Jim Roat Standard) service station next door to Sandy's on east Douglas in 1963/64. All the service attendants at the station were great friends with all the employees at Sandy's so we got free 'reject' Sandy's burgers every day! We all cruised Douglas after work and knew all the kids at East High as they would come by the station in the mornings and hang out until time to go to school. All the 'Douglas Cruisers' were our customers so our parking lot was always full of the coolest cars in Wichita. Dave Stuckey was always showing up in some new customized ride on the Douglas cruise. He's still building cars in Wichita today. KLEO was the favorite radio station and you could hear it all over the area between the gas station and Sandy's. the station was torn down when the city widened Grove into a 4 lane street. I would love to see someone post photos of Sandy's and the service station from back in the good old days.

Thanks for a great site,
Carl

Special thanks to Carl Green for the scans of Sandy's & the Standard. If you have pictures please email me!

05/10/2010 ... Sandy's fan Tara asks... Odd question for you. The other day I saw a couple wearing Sandy's t-shirts that said something like "dragging douglas a Wichita tradition." My parents meet on douglas and have been married now for 43 years. I would love to be able to give them a couple of these shirts. Any idea where I could find them?

Thanks