Snack cakes like these got me into trouble at school. Click to enlarge.
photo by Harmon Jolley
We’re motoring down Dodds Avenue, and back in the East Lake community for this Memories article.
As one of Chattanooga’s early subdivisions, East Lake grew to include a combination of residences, retail establishments, and manufacturing which sustained one another. Up ahead, diagonally opposite each other, are two buildings that I remember very well as the homes of the the White Kitchen restaurant and the Dolly Madison thrift store.
4317 DODDS AVENUE – THE WHITE KITCHEN
This building was constructed in 1966. Restaurateur Norman White, who had operated the White Circle Restaurant at 2407 Glass Street, gave his name to a new venture, the White Kitchen. The owner had a short commute to work, as he lived above his restaurant.
The White Kitchen served cooked-to-order hamburgers and French fries through their “to go” window at the store. Their chocolate milk shakes remain in my memory for their flavor and consistency.
4400 DODDS AVENUE – THE DOLLY MADISON CAKE COMPANY
In an attempt to stretch the family’s budget, my father put together a route that included stops at every store that claimed to offer a bargain.
For bread, we relied on the Holsum and Colonial stores in East Chattanooga and Highland Park. At John’s Railroad Salvage in Rossville, just like Forrest Gump’s mother said, you never knew what you were going to get. The Gibson’s Discount Center on Twenty-third Street was where we shopped for groceries and furniture. The opening of a new snack cake store in East Lake caught my father’s eye.
In 1966, the same year that White Kitchen opened, the Dolly Madison Cake Company and Budget Bakery opened in a new building at 4400 Dodds Avenue. Dolly Madison snack cakes date to 1937, when company founder Ralph Leroy (Roy) Nafziger introduced “cakes and pastries fine enough to serve at the White House” at his bakery in Kansas City.
At the time that the local Dolly Madison store opened, the country was caught up in the Peanuts comic strip characters. Charlie Brown and the gang were featured on the Dolly Madison packaging.
Zingers were one of the popular Madison snacks. These were small sponge cakes, topped with icing, and sold in a variety of flavors. Zingers were great to pack as a dessert in a lunch from home.
At school, a few classmates told me that they liked Zingers, too. That was the spark that led to an early business venture for me. I would buy boxes of Zingers at the thrift store, and sell them to fellow students in the cafeteria.
Business was good; maybe too good. One day, I felt someone clutching my shoulder. “Wait your turn in line like everyone else, “ I thought about telling the person. I looked up to see the principal standing over me. “The store is permanently closed, folks; move along,” he told my customers. He told me, “Harmon, I’m shutting you down.”
I suppose that like any businessman, I liquidated my inventory and started looking for the next business opportunity. I read about selling Grit newspapers, or how I could draw Blinky the Turtle and get into art school, but never pursued those.
According to city directories, the Dolly Madison thrift store remained in business until the early 1990’s. One can still find Zingers, made under the Hostess name, at area stores.
If you have memories of the White Kitchen or Dolly Madison, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.