CityView Magazine

The Fayetteville USO had outgrown its temporary quarters inside the old Rosemont Hotel at the corner of Hay and Winslow streets. The new club was touted as the largest USO club in the world, and the community embraced it. According to ÒF ayetteville, North Carolina: The Way it WasÓ by Weeks Parker Jr., the new USO boasted a restaurant and an auditorium that was used for basketball and other games, as well as dancing, movies and skating. In the 1950s, Parker and his orchestra entertained at the USO on Saturday nights. Civic groups used the clubÕ s banquet rooms for meetings, classes and a variety of community events. The Ray Avenue USO remained open through World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. It was shuttered in 1986. In May 2003, it burned down. The building has since been razed, but in a way the site returned to its entertainment roots when it was transformed into Festival Park. Here or History? The USO is back thanks to a center that opened last year on Fort Bragg. ItÕ s a place for a new generation to make its own lasting memories. Drive on in When Bob Streib ran StreibÕ s Drive- in on Fort Bragg Road, his wife, Nancy, was known fondly as Mama Streib. Folks still call her that, even after all these years. The Streibs operated the restaurant from 1957 through 1977, in the heyday of drive-ins. It was a family affair. ÒI was a waitress, a cook, whatever,Ó said Nancy Streib. StreibÕ s was a frequent gathering place for students from nearby Fayetteville High School, what is now Terry Sanford High School. The menu offered the old drive-in standards: hamburgers, hot dogs and milkshakes made from real ice cream. StreibÕ s also offered FayettevilleÕ s first bucket of fried chicken and a mean sandwich. Ò People went crazy over his pastrami and his steak sandwiches,Ó said Suzie Heflin, the StreibsÕ daughter, who worked at the restaurant as a girl, waiting tables, breading chicken, washing up. 46|June/July • 2009 Above | The Ray Avenue USO is the present-day site of Festival Park in downtown Fayetteville. Bob Streib loved the teenagers who frequented his drive-in. He gave many of them a good job and a helping hand when they needed it, Nancy Streib said. The high school kids would sneak off campus for lunch and come to StreibÕ s, and their principal would come looking for them. Ò TheyÕd hide in the cooler,Ó Nancy Streib said, Ò or theyÕd get in BobÕ s car and take off.Ó Glenn Jernigan remembers it well. Ò StreibÕ s was, without question, the favorite place of Fayetteville High School students,Ó Jernigan said. ÒI t was a family atmosphere, a place where you were well-received as young people. (Mr. Streib) had a heart bigger than he was, and he was always receptive to the young people. He liked to chide you or tease you, but it was a good environment.Ó Not far from StreibÕ s, over on Bragg Boulevard, Gus and Steve Pappas owned another of FayettevilleÕ s famed eating establishments. Named Pappas Drive-in after the two Greek brothers, Pappas was an institution in Fayetteville from 1962 to 2002. The brothers served traditional drive-in fare, including tasty onion rings and pizza, along with something called broasted chicken. Yes, thatÕ s broasted, not roasted. The broasted chicken was battered and fried in a special pressure cooker of sorts, said Gus PappasÕ daughter, Angie Murray. They had real milkshakes, too, and carhops would carry the orders to your car and place a special tray on your window. Murray said customers came from Lumberton and Stedman and even High Point to eat at Pappas. Customers were like family, Murray said, and in some cases, the brothers allowed them to run up a tab, granting credit on a handshake. Loyal customers would bring the Pappas brothers vegetables from their gardens or freshly-caught fish or deer meat. Ò My dad would always give them something in return,Ó Murray said. ÒI t was always an understanding there.Ó Here or History? Sad to say, but the drive-in era may be gone for good. Even after it was closed, the Pappas building stood on Bragg Boulevard until it was demolished a few years back. Lucky for landmark lovers, the parabola-shaped building next door, sometimes called the flying saucer, is still alive and well.CV

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