Remember when … there was an A&W root beer stand in Ruskin?
By PENNY FLETCHER
There’s a spot in Ruskin that has returned to its roots.
Well, it’s almost returned to its roots. It’s as close to the way it was 50 years ago as it’s ever been.
From an outdoor eatery through several businesses, the location of what is now The Dog House & More has returned an outdoor eatery to the center of Ruskin on U.S. 41 for the first time in almost half a century.
The Dog House & More started on Shell Point Road as an outdoor picnic table-style restaurant and has stayed that way since its move.
Originally, or as I call it, “back in the day,” that location on U.S. 41 housed the local version of the television series Happy Days’ “Arnold’s,” where rock ’n’ roll music played, and kids of all ages were served their floats, malts and burgers.
Mostly, it was a place for teenagers to hang out.
I wasn’t in South County 50 years ago, but one of the people who wrote me an e-mail last week and talked about this was. So was my late husband.
When I started this column four weeks ago, I asked people to write in about their experiences in South County “back in the day.” With Thanksgiving themes taking up the last two columns, I really didn’t expect to start getting e-mails about experiences of others so soon.
But I did, and I’m glad.
I moved here in January 1980 from Bradenton, and I know there are some whose families have been here many, many years longer than that. Even I can remember Ruskin before there was a McDonalds (or much else) and S.R. 674 from Ruskin to Sun City Center was two lanes without a median.
But I love to hear about what came before all over what is now called South County.
It’s a shame the woman who wrote me asked that I not use her name because I would really like to credit those who send me information that shows up in this column, but I promised I wouldn’t. “Anonymous,” who moved here in 1963, told me one of the main reasons she liked it here then was because they could walk to everything they needed. Small town life was good.
Her children went to Ruskin Elementary School; they used the Dickman Branch Library, which at the time was the only library in the South County area. They often enjoyed sodas and malts at the A&W Root Beer Hut, which was a family-style restaurant. When I arrived here sometime later — even after a 10-foot high flood along U.S. 41 in 1985, the building housed a couple of small businesses ending with a pool company.
Everyone who knows me knows there are few things I like better than a good hot dog.
Yesterday I drove slowly past The Dog House & More. The outdoor atmosphere does remind me of things “back in the day.” Since I moved from Ruskin to Riverview in 2001, I haven’t paid much attention to the changes along U.S. 41, where businesses suffered tremendously after I-75 was connected in this area. Until the mid-1990s, I-75 stopped in Tampa and did not pick up again until Manatee County, forcing cars to use U.S. 301 or 41 through South Hillsborough.
That was good for businesses.
The old days of a public canning center, a community swimming pool and skating rink in Ruskin may be gone, but if you look closely, you’ll see new things sprouting up.
South County has come together in many ways that were not evident when I first moved here. It seems the 450-square-mile area I covered so long for news is like a single body; and yet not one community has lost its personal identity. From Sun City (south of Ruskin) through Ruskin, Apollo Beach, Gibsonton, Riverview and Wimauma, each place has its own look and feel.
So please send me your memories of your community. Everyone’s memories are different, unique to their experience.
So be sure and send me yours.