My friends, to my knowledge, I never had a Maid Rite cheeseburger after graduation from HHS in 1967 until yesterday.

I know our Maid Rite's was not an "official" Maid Rite restaurant; it was not part of the franchise. I only learned of the Maid Rite franchise about a year ago. I had always thought that our Hammond Maid Rite's was the ONLY one.

I learned of the existence of a franchised Maid Rite's in Springfield, IL, and I could hardly wait until my next business trip to Taylorville, IL, which is about 30 miles from Springfield. It finally happened this week. I finally got my Maid Rite cheeseburgers, four of them to be exact! (They were not tiny, but were not quite full sized burgers, either.) DELICIOUS!

This particular Maid Rite's has quie a claim to fame; they had the first fast food drive-thru in the US. There has been a restaurant on that site since 1924, and it has been a Maid Rite's since 1926.

If you want to visit this establishment, it is located on the corner of Jefferson and Passfield, pretty much smack dab in the middle of Springfield. The current owner is a super nice gentleman by the name of Sam Quaisi. Sam told me that he freezes the burgers for folks and sends them overnight delivery, with the only charge above the standard price for the burgers being the actuall shipping cost. He just needs a couple days to get them ready and get them frozen good before they go out, once the order is placed.

If our gracious host, Mr. Barnes, will allow this, here's the phone number.

217-523-0723

Here are some pics.

Tom Johnson
HHS 1967

Oops! I should do a better job of proof reading... I DO know that "actual" has only one "L."