Nostalgia & History > Now This Is Class: Railfan Trip Lunch at McDonalds, 1967

      Subtitle:  Only in Iowa

I have been on  a few fan trips in my life but never has one stopped at McDonalds for lunch.  The cars in the background are Iowa Terminal Railroad Box Motor #31 (ex-CNS&M) and Car 100.  The photo was taken by Roger Puta on August 12, 1967 in Mason City, Iowa. 

I've heard of Drive-ups, but this is a bit much!

Enjoy,
Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/16 20:47 by MartyBernard.

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I love it! So many classic things to look at here!

- Jeff Carlson

Posted from iPhone

Nice look at Americana, Marty. Thanks to you and Roger.

Wonder how much a BigMac sold for then?

Dick Samuels

EMDSW-1 Wrote:
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> Wonder how much a BigMac sold for then?
>
> Dick Samuels

I don't know about in the 60's but, in the mid 70's my family would go to McDonalds. We would each get a large soda, small fries and two cheese burgers and the bill was about $5.00 for all four of us.

EMDSW-1 Wrote:
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> Wonder how much a BigMac sold for then?
>
> Dick Samuels


The Big Mac was sold initially in Pennsylvania, starting in 1967.  It was so successful that the rest of the restaurants began to sell it in 1968.  The first Big Mac was sold for 45 cents.  
 

Back when the food was decent, and milkshakes were made with real ice cream.

jeff56 Wrote:
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> Back when the food was decent, and milkshakes were
> made with real ice cream.

Yeah, and McDonald's was not yet an invasive species. - EO

Downtown Durango, 2011

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Mickey Ds opened in 1966 in Camden,NO on My Ephraim Ave right in front of the Black Horse Drive Inn ... we would go get burgers and watch the movie ... one day my pop on his way home was turning in get some burgers and someone hit him in the rear of our 1961 Ford Galaxy ... the same Mickey Ds use to be on our walk home from fishing with my friends ... I'd get 2 Big Macs, 2 cheeseburgers, 2 Cokes and a chocolate shake ... I was one skinny scawny kid with the appetite of a hungry dog ... ppl just couldn't believe how much I could eat ...

Back in the day, before mac d started serving up industrial waste salted to perfection.

jeff56 Wrote:
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> Back when the food was decent, and milkshakes were
> made with real ice cream.

and the fillet of fish was fried in tallow. Yum!

19th and South Federal in Mason City.  Ate there several times.  I believe this store, I always
have trouble calling fast food places stores, has been demolished and a new one built a little
further south, but I may be mistaken about that.  By the time I got to Mason City, this trackage
was all but out of service.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

My first exposure to a Big Mac was in 1969, San Mateo, CA.  In California they were introduced at $0.55.  Still worth $0.55 today!

Ed

Whenever I started with a different railroad (there were many in 50 years) the first thing I wanted to know was where the resturants, fast food places, truck stops, quick marts, etc. were located near the tracks so we knew where to eat and find a bathroom. After working at one railroad most were all the same: look for runaround tracks, wyes, leads, switchbacks, head room on tails, backward connections, car lengths per track and which they rolled. Once, a guy knew the "lay of the land" it was pretty much what needed to be done, how soon and when do we go home.

exprail   

aaronhanson Wrote:
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> EMDSW-1 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Wonder how much a BigMac sold for then?
> >
> > Dick Samuels
>
>
> The Big Mac was sold initially in Pennsylvania,
> starting in 1967.  It was so successful that the
> rest of the restaurants began to sell it in 1968.
>  The first Big Mac was sold for 45 cents. 
>  
The 45 cent Big Mac was priced to match Burger King Whoppers, which was 39 cents when I started working there while in high school in 1965.  It went to 45 cents about 2 months later.  McDonalds hamburgers were a mere 15 cents, and a cheeseburger, 18 (or was it 17?).  I liked their burgers better than Burger King burgers, but the Whopper remains to this day my favorite fast-food burger...$4.80 with no cheese (incl tax) this past Sunday!  

Electorburger and french fries? wag216

jeff56 Wrote:
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> Back when the food was decent, and milkshakes were
> made with real ice cream.

Isn't that the truth and why (I might be wrong) Micky D's doesn't call them "Milk" shakes, but only shakes.  For years I always thought they tasted like sweet flavored foam and not ice creamy at all.  Last year, my wife and I were traveling through Pennsylvania and stopped at a McD last year and the large shake we shared cost around $3.60 and I was shocked at how expensive they had gotten seemingly over night - I thought they were at least a dollar or more less for the large but hadn't checked in some months.  High-way robbery!  Suffice it to say, it's the last large shake I've gotten from them since.  If I paid that much, I'd expect it to be made with real icecream and from a Friendly's or some place where at least I got what I considered to be a "posh" milkshake.  I don't know but I've been spoiled for too long by low cost fast food like the value menu etc. to tolerate the new high McD prices.  No wonder they are stuggling.  /rant

Back on topic.  IIRC, my first trip to the golden arches was as a kid when we all moved to southern California around 1967 and the McD we went to looked like the one in the photo above.

Cheers, Jim Fitch



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/16 11:09 by SPDRGWfan.

I apologise for starting a thread about fast food burgers.  Please forgive me.

Marty Bernard 

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> I apologise for starting a thread about fast food
> burgers.  Please forgive me.
>
> Marty Bernard 
Good thread, Marty. No problem.
BTW: Whoppers Rule!! Especially the BK unit in Aberdeen, SD, where I met my future wife in 1976.

I remember the radio jingle proclaiming  "47 cents for a three course meal at McDonalds!"  That was in
the late 60s..... pre Big Mac.