Our Gathering Place Celebrates A Milestone In Nashville

Of course, I can't speak for everyone who was involved in Sing-Out South, but while I was in the cast in the late 1960s, one of our favorite places to go after practice, or a show, or just to hang out together, was Shoney's.

That was particularly true concerning the Shoney's on Murphy Road just off West End. It's gone now, but in its day, it was one of the first Shoney's built for dine-in only. There was no outside drive-in facility, which had been a Shoney's staple for many years.

We would go there to the Murphy Road Shoney's, and often have long (and sometimes heated) discussions about MRA, Sing-Out and the state of the world and life in general. Usually Henry Swider was involved.

Once, I think we even got kicked out for being too loud and probably staying too long without ordering much food. Hey, remember we were kids without much money in those days. :)

I thought about all this because Shoney's recently celebrated its
50th anniversary in Nashville by completely remodeling its store on Thompson Lane into a new prototype restaurant for the chain. By the way, this is the "new" Thompson Lane Shoney's closer to Nolensville Road, not the one that used to be right next to the railroad tunnel closer to Pla-Mor Bowling Lanes and the National Guard Armory, where we used to practice.

For those of us who grew up eating at Shoney's the mascot symbol was the Big Boy. Now it's the Shoney's Bear.

For a time there was also a Shoney's in 100 Oaks Mall, and I remember some of us used to sneak down there after we practiced at the Armory or in the old Quanset Hut building there. And we'd sometimes go the Shoney's on Nolensville Road near old Harding Mall.

Shoney's was also helpful to Sing-Out South to attend the two of our Sing-Out national conferences. In early August, 1967 we held our 100-hour Car Wash Marathon to raise money for cast members to attend the World Sing-Out Festival being held at Ft. Slocum on David's Island just outside New Rochelle, NY (and just outside New York City).

The goal of the car wash was to wash 1,000 cars at one dollar apiece (plus generous tips )in 100 hours. I don't remember if we made the goal, but I do remember we held the car wash at a gas station just down the hill from the Murphy Road Shoney's (today we'd be in the middle of I-440). I also remember we made lots of trips to Shoney's for food and drinks during that car wash marathon.

The year before, in 1966 the Shoney's on Harding Road in Belle Meade donated an entire night's proceeds for our funding raising efforts to go to the Sing-Out Conference held in Estes Park, CO. The restaurant stayed packed with customers all night (many of the patrons were Sing-Out members and our families).

People did not go out to eat in those days as often as they do today. So my parents taking our entire family (including 6 kids) out to eat at a sit-down restaurant was a rare and wonderful treat...and it was all for a very good cause.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Shoney's is a client of my firm, DVL Public Relations and Advertising, although I do not work on the account.