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By the time Ellie Sullivan had reached the grand old age of eighty, she had decided that perhaps she should start considering what would become of the beloved drive-in that she and Sully had built together so very many years before. She had reached out to his side of the family back in the nineties following her husband’s passing, but most had not maintained any contact since then. Her own family had dwindled down to a couple of distant cousins whom she had never met and who showed no interest in a small restaurant in East Texas. Only Missy had come back to see the grand reopening and only she had continued to write and call all these years later.
Missy was a great-granddaughter of Sully’s favorite aunt Darlene. She and her husband had lived most of their lives north of Dallas until moving to Tyler a few years back. Ellie had found the girl to be much like herself, fun-loving and full of energy. She looked at the birthday card that she had received the day before. Missy had written inside, “Happy 81st! Hope the next 81 go just as smoothly!”
She laughed and put the card aside. She had to get to work. The drive-in opened in another hour. Although she had passed on the full-time manager position years ago, Ellie had always been an early riser and she still insisted on being there each morning when the first customers drove in for the breakfast rush. She often wondered what Sully would think of the drive-in now. In the beginning, the two of them were the primary employees as well as the owners. With the extended hours and expanded menus, Sully’s was now open earlier than ever and still maintained the late night hours that had always been so popular. They were even considering a plan for staying open twenty-four hours a day on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Ellie had never really slowed down herself, but she had been forced to rely on a series of managers to cover the hours of operation when they had gone beyond even her limits of endurance which were legendary. Even now, she would open up in the mornings and stay through lunch on a regular basis. Most afternoons and evenings, she would be at the drive-in more hours than away and she often said that when she was home, she did nothing more than sit around thinking about the restaurant. It truly was her baby and she hated to be apart even after all these years.
To the kids of Eastlake, Sully’s was just another fast food joint. The town had grown and as the community flourished, the available options for eating out had also grown. There was even talk that Eastlake might soon get their own McDonalds. There were already four or five places to get burgers in town and at least three good Mexican food restaurants. Two pizza places did a solid business, a Chinese place across from Sully’s was doing well, and the place out at the Shores was still considered the best place to get a steak. The diner, now a taco stand was open again and had become a popular lunch spot.
The older folk still remembered Sully’s from the early days. They shared the memories of hanging out on a Friday night listening to the rock and roll music blaring from the old cheap speakers and thought the teens who frequented the drive-in today would never know what they had missed. To them, Miss Ellie was just some ancient lady who owned the place and wandered the premises keeping an ever watchful eye on the carhops. Nevertheless, she was popular with most of the customers regardless of age. Young kids flocked to her and she handed out peppermints from the apron she had worn since the fifties. Football and basketball teams still preferred Sully’s for their pregame or after game meals. School kids looked forward to reward trips and routinely asked to go to the drive-in.
To most of the local citizens, Ellie Sullivan was a lifelong friend and when she passed, it felt as if Eastlake would never be the same.
***
Ron Copeland did not care for funerals. At seventy-three, he thought he had probably been to way too many. He was sad to see Miss Ellie go, but he knew that Brother Manning would do an excellent job and he much preferred a celebration of a long and well-lived life to the passing of someone younger. He had experienced both here at Eastlake. Still painful after almost a decade were the memories of Kevin Mills wearing his football jersey for the last time ever. Only two years earlier, he had laid to rest his beloved wife, Sharon. Manning had presided over her service as well. After that loss, he had considered moving away, but eventually, he adjusted to life without her and he still came to town now and again to catch a home football or basketball game. At one point, he even managed to check off one final career goal. He had come out of retirement to serve as the interim superintendent for several months following the departure of Mary Anne Marston.
Cole and Annie Bradford were at the service. Following his retirement, he had piddled around the house until his wife had shoved him out the door insisting he find something to occupy his time. He had rediscovered his love for woodworking and was soon producing a quantity of goods that sold well in the community. Dressers and hope chests were his specialty, although he preferred the wooden toys that involved intricate details and required a greater degree of skill. He took pride in the craftsmanship and loved to see the toys in the hands of the children. Annie had retired after years of working as an administrator at a local nursing home.
Copeland and Bradford had shared a laugh over the huge flower arrangement sent by Mary Anne Marston. Both agreed that it was just like her to make a big, grand gesture, something that would bring attention to herself without her having to actually show up at the ceremony. Bonding over their mutual dislike for their former boss, the two also laughed about another matter.
Copeland started it by asking Bradford about Marston’s favorite initiative. She had created a program to grant special recognition to school personnel who had shown a high level of commitment to the field of education and particularly to the Eastlake school district. Each month, the board would approve a new member to the Flying Eagle Corps who would receive a plaque and be featured in the local newspaper. It very quickly became a way for Marston to reward her strongest supporters whom she hand-picked for the honor. Instead of the long-serving dedicated teachers expected, the board found themselves rewarding young, relatively inexperienced teachers and aides who shared one common trait, they loved their superintendent.
Copeland smiled and asked “Hey, did you ever make it into the Flying Eagles?”
Bradford fired back with a grin, “You mean the Suck-Up Squad?”
“We always called it the Kiss Ass Club.” They smiled broadly, comrades in arms. “You know, there are some really fine teachers that deserved it that never even got considered.”
Bradford agreed. “There were some good ones that did make it, but not enough.”
“Well, I got as many as I could in while I had the chance. And I think the new superintendent gets it. Maybe he’ll make it work like it’s supposed to. Recognize some of the ones who really have made a difference around here.”
“I hope so, Ron.”
Although they had never been close friends during the time they were both working for the district, in their retirement, they had bumped into one another a few times and shared a drink or two swapping stories about their experiences with Dr. Marston. Copeland tended to not think very highly of any of the female bosses for whom he had worked over the years. As a former girls’ coach, Bradford was much more of a feminist. Although he had hated Marston, he had worked with a number of other female administrators over the course of his career and he held great respect for the majority of them. One thing they readily agreed upon was their high regard for Ellie Sullivan.
Ty Mills sat at the back of the church. He had not been in the First Baptist Church since the funeral of his grandson years earlier and being in the sanctuary dredged up painful memories of that day. Still, he would not have missed paying his respects to Miss Ellie. He could not imagine Eastlake without Sully’s. And he could not think of the drive-in without picturing Miss Ellie. He also remembered Sully fondly. The old man had loved to talk football with the high school players and coaches, and unlike many of the local citizens, he actually knew the game. Sully spoke often of his own father and how they had watched game films together when he was a boy. His father would break down the plays and point out the good and the bad in great detail. Even though he was usually working the grill and seldom attended the Eastlake games, he followed the team in the paper and could recall the stats faithfully. Ty always thought that Sully would have made an excellent coach himself.
Julie Holder was in attendance. She was going by Holder again now that she had divorced her husband and returned to Eastlake. She was working at the bank which was still owned and operated by her family. Her children had graduated from Eastlake High and her oldest grandchild was now a senior. At heart, she had always been a small town girl and once she had returned, she had never again seriously considered leaving. Her son was teaching at the junior high and was even helping with the theater arts program. Julie couldn’t be more proud.
Langston Reynolds and his wife sat in their usual Sunday morning spot about halfway back on the right side. His son, recently returned from his latest deployment sat between them. His old friend and former assistant Brent Griffen had slipped in behind him. It was the first time in over twenty years that he had set foot in the church. Langston welcomed him gladly. He had not seen him very often in the last several years. When Brent had first given up coaching and moved to the intermediate school, he had come by occasionally to see Langston, and they had maintained their friendship, but as the years passed, the visits became more infrequent. A year or so before, Brent had left Eastlake and taken a position at Millwood. Langston had laughed thinking of their experiences long ago and the low opinion they had held of that particular community. Brent had actually discovered that despite his previous prejudices, the people of Millwood were by and large a wonderful and accepting people.
In the very back of the auditorium sat Cora Peters. She came in late and spoke to no one. Most of the people in the church would not have recognized her anyway. She seldom left her house, but she felt strongly compelled to be here today for Ellie. She had purposely come late and had every intention of leaving as soon as the last prayer began. She had such rare contact with people these days, she doubted her ability to even have a normal conversation. She was here to pay her respects to one of the few actual friends she could claim in Eastlake. And then she would go home to her new set of kittens. Her only real companions.
Amy Davis had retired from teaching a few years before. She had taken to eating at Sully’s a couple of times a month, and she had always made sure to check in with Miss Ellie when she did. Like most of the town’s long-time residents, she could not imagine the place without Sully’s and she could certainly never imagine Eastlake without Miss Ellie. When she was a young teacher, she had come often to seek motherly advice from her. She had talked with her about school, about church, about the men she dated, and even about retirement. One summer long ago, she had even talked about working part-time as a carhop. She often wished she had followed through.
An entire section near the front of the church was devoted to the former carhops. The oldest was Deidre Lane who had outlasted several husbands and all of the original skating waitresses of Sully’s. She was approaching ninety and her skating days were well past, but Ellie had been her oldest and closest friend. Deidre had even come back to Sully’s and served as the night manager after Sully had passed away and the drive-in was being renovated. Around her were the generations of women who had served with a smile and made Sully’s the place to be for decades.
There was a brief slideshow with pictures of Sully and Ellie and of course, the drive-in. A few hymns were played and then Brother Manning rose to speak.
“One of the traditional parts of a service like this is the reading of the obituary. Many of us would have a long list of all of our so-called accomplishments and the different jobs we had pursued over the years, but for Miss Ellie, this will be fairly short. Don’t let the brevity fool you.”
He read from the same brief remarks that were included in the cards they had each received upon entering the sanctuary.
“Ellen Mae Sanderson was born on April 22, 1937 and graduated from Eastlake High School in May of 1955. She married the love of her life, James Sullivan the following year. In 1957, they opened Sully’s Drive-In where she worked until she passed on April 23rd of this year.”
They sang another hymn and Brother Manning rose once more to address the assembly.
“Today, we gather not to mourn, but to celebrate the life and the memory of our dear friend, Ellie Sullivan, or as most of us knew her, Miss Ellie. She loved Eastlake and I’ll just go ahead and speak for us all and say that Eastlake loved her. And she will be sorely missed.”
“In 1937, Ellen Sullivan was born into a world most of us would not recognize. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the president, Ronald Reagan was making his film debut, Joe Louis was the heavyweight boxing champion, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released, the Golden Gate Bridge opened, and Amelia Earhart disappeared. You could buy a car for under eight hundred dollars or a house for around four thousand. Gas was ten cents a gallon and a loaf of bread cost nine cents. You could get a pound of hamburger meat for twelve cents. It was a different time. A different age.”
“Ellen’s father lost the family farm during the Great Depression. She was born in a shotgun shack on the edge of the property they no longer owned, but worked as tenant farmers. He died when she was four and she and her mother moved to town where they lived with a succession of families cleaning, cooking, and doing whatever it took to survive. They scraped together enough savings for a small rent house and her mother eventually found work at the elementary school cafeteria. It was a hard life, but they never complained.”
“Ellie was a good student, but she had to go straight home after school to help her mom with the laundry and the sewing she took in to make ends meet. So she never got to be a cheerleader or participate in any other school activities, but again she never complained. When her mom passed away right after she graduated, she went to work at the grocery store and then she met a boy named James Sullivan who swept her off her feet.”
“They settled down right here in Eastlake and opened a little drive-in restaurant some of you may have heard of.” He paused for the polite laughter. “I would say, and the rest is history, but most of you probably have no idea how hard those first years were for Sully and Ellie. They borrowed a lot of money from the bank and put up the tiny house his father had left him for collateral. And there were some times when they thought they were gonna lose that house, just like her father had lost his farm all those years before, but they didn’t give up.”
“Eventually, their hard work paid off. They managed to clear all their loans and the drive-in was finally turning a profit. They moved into a bigger place, still dreaming of the children they would raise, but as most of you know, that dream never came true. Instead they adopted all of us and poured their lives into making this community a better place. It would embarrass her for me to reveal all the little acts of mercy and compassion, all the money she gave over the years, and it would also take the rest of the day, so I’ll just speak in general terms, sorta hit the highlights.”
“Ellie tithed here at our church. She gave faithfully and cheerfully. She also gave money to other churches in town. She gave to the Methodist church building fund when they had that storm damage years ago. She gave to the Catholic Church food drive every year and even anonymously donated to that little nondenominational church east of town. She told me once that God had blessed her so much, she just had to share.”
“She also gave back to the local schools. She never forgot her mother working in the school cafeteria and every year she paid off the lunch accounts for dozens of families who couldn’t afford it. She donated money more than once for the athletic booster club to help buy uniforms. She donated to the band and the cheerleaders. She bought more fundraiser candy over the years than anyone I’ve ever known.”
“But mostly, she just touched our lives daily in her own special way. I look out before me and I see generations of young ladies who worked at the drive-in over the last six decades, all of the ladies of this community who were taught by Miss Ellie and who passed those lessons on to their own sons and daughters. Every one of her girls was special to her. She gave them jobs, and self-confidence, and the sense of belonging. She made them a part of the family at Sully’s and they will never forget the multitude of daily lessons she provided.”
“So, today, reluctantly, we say our goodbyes. She has gone to be with Sully. We loved her, we will surely miss her, but we are grateful to have known her. Let’s pray.”
***
Missy Gardner moved to Eastlake and became the primary owner of Sully’s Drive-In. She had taken on the task at the urging of Miss Ellie a year earlier. She and Sully had once talked of leaving the restaurant to their children. With very few relatives remaining, she had thought the great-granddaughter of Sully’s beloved aunt would be the next best thing, and she had cultivated the relationship in hopes of keeping the drive-in a family business. She had tried to get Missy and her husband to move to Eastlake anticipating a smooth transition, but they had chosen to wait and made repeated excuses. In the end, she had chosen family over friends and left control of the restaurant to Missy, instead of their friends and original partners, the Holder family who maintained only a small share in the business.
For several months, there was little change in the restaurant. Ellie’s hand-picked managers handled most of the day-to-day operations and the new owner was content to learn the ropes from the veterans who had benefited from Ellie’s leadership over the years. Eventually, her husband began to urge a more hands-on approach. Henry Gardner had spent the last several years in Tyler as a used car salesman and saw himself as a businessman more than capable of running a small town restaurant.
When the Gardners began suggesting changes, Mason Holder, the bank’s president tried to caution them to take things slowly, but his advice was ignored. Henry thought the drive-in could make much more money if they cut the staff and soon he had installed himself as the chief financial decision maker and Missy became the only full-time manager. Henry began cutting the menu and buying commodities at cheaper prices and of lesser quality. Missy cut the number of carhops per shift and increased the number of stations for which each carhop would be responsible.
Within six months, the drive-in was doing less business than it had in years while Missy and Henry continued to make unpopular and ineffective changes. Holder borrowed the money to make a generous buy-out offer, but the Gardners refused to sell. Four months later, on the verge of bankruptcy, they changed their minds and took a lesser offer, before leaving Eastlake for good. The Holder family was thrilled to have control of the drive-in and set about restoring it to its former state.
***
Sitting at the newly restored picnic tables in front of Sully’s, Chris Manning and Langston Reynolds were having a pleasant lunch.
Manning was enjoying a burger, fries and shake. “I’m glad to see that the Holders have gotten this place back in shape. It’s been a while since I had a real Sully’s burger.”
“Yeah, those burgers they were serving around here were pretty bad. Mason Holder told me that he did finally get all the contracts sorted out and the old distributors back.”
“Maybe the customers will start returning now that the food is back to normal. I think he’s gotten most of the old staff back as well. It’s actually starting to feel like the drive-in again. The real one.”
Langston nodded in agreement. “You know, it makes a difference having local folks in charge. I didn’t really ever get to know the Gardners, and they seemed nice enough, but I don’t think they ever really understood this place.”
Manning leaned in. “They came to the church a few times. Never looked too comfortable around here. In Eastlake, I mean. I heard she grew up in Dallas and hated Tyler ‘cause she thought it wasn’t big enough.”
Langston laughed. “Well, if she thought Tyler was too small, I’m sure she hated it here.”
“I guess so. Some people just don’t know how to slow down and relax.”
“Amen, Pastor. Amen.”
