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Remember Wimpy's Drive-In?
This photograph was taken June 22, 1968.
It shows Wimpy's located at the northeast corner of Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive in Cape Girardeau.
What looks like a flashing red light hangs over the intersection across from Arena Park. Cape Rock Drive looks under construction.
Frank Lewis, who died in 2007, operated the restaurant/grocery store with his brothers. He started working there in 1947, five years after it opened.
According to a news story in the Southeast Missourian April 20, 2007, Wimpy's was the place to be in the 1950s and 1960s.
Freeman Lewis said people would drive to Wimpy's on a Saturday night, then down Broadway, then back to Wimpy's.
With Cape Girardeau growing, the Lewises decided to sell the land of the family business when Farmers and Merchants Bank was interested in buying property in 1973. It remains a bank today with a branch of First Missouri State Bank at the site.
Bill Lewis moved Wimpy's to South Kingshighway, where the business switched to serving breakfast and lunch only, until he closed the doors for good in 1997.
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