Audio clip from interview with Helen Anderson and Karen Walker, February 21, 2014

And so how did it actually start? I mean why did the people at Sill's Drive-In decide to start Hamburger Heaven? Okay. Because they felt the need for a restaurant over on the - I guess you would say the Westside, the black side. So instead of them coming to run the business themselves, my aunt and uncle ran it. Most people thought that they owned it. What are their names? Katherine and Morris Johnson. That's them right there. Oh, so this is in the picture. They're in the photograph. Right. That's them right there. Okay. Oh, that's wonderful. Could blacks go to Sill's Drive-In? I don't know if they could go there, but I know they worked there. But I don't know if they were allowed to like eat or anything there, because my mom worked there for a while, too. I don't think my daddy did. I know my Aunt Kat, she used to be the baker. She was the baker. So they made their own bread? Well, I know they made their own deserts. I don't know about bread. Tell me about the deserts. Caramel cake, chocolate cake. And she made the best pies. Like what? Banana cream, coconut cream, egg custard, potato, pecan. You name it, she made it. sweet potato? Uh-huh. Mmm. She made those at Sill's Drive-in and at Hamburger Heaven? Yes. So tell me what was on the menu at Hamburger Heaven. Taco burgers, hamburgers, chicken, fish, French fries, chili fries and, of course, the delicious cakes and pies. They used to have like root beer. Used to have a gallon of root beer. We used to have ice cream and floats and stuff like that. So describe the place to me. The two of you together, take me into Hamburger Heaven right now. Describe it to me. It was fun for me. I was making money at a young age. I actually came in and was actually literally getting a check at the age of nine. Doing what at nine? I was actually working. She was at the counter. She was taking orders. And they would pay you in check form at nine years of age? Well, we weren't paying in check form. Well, see, what had happened, me being a single mom during that time, so she would have to go to work with me to keep her from staying at home by herself. So I would have her come up in the front and like take orders and stuff. People just thought that was just so amazing. And not that she really got a check, but people just gave her money. She would go home at the end of the day with probably more... So what relation are you to Katherine and Morris Johnson? Kat is my momma's sister. So they're my aunt and uncle. So Helen's aunt and uncle. Your great-aunt. So now, physically tell me what it looked like as we're walking in the door. In the beginning - okay. Let's see where that picture at. In the beginning you would like walk in the door and you would walk right into the counter. It was like the counter and right behind the counter was the cook station. It had a grill. Over here were the deep fryers. Up over here it had the menu. Could I sit down and eat in there? In the beginning they really didn't have a place to sit down and eat because it was so small. We used to have little tables out on the side. outside? Uh-huh. But like in the beginning it was just so small you would just come in and just order your food and you would go out. A lot of people sat in their cars and stuff and then they had a little dining. Then later on when me and my husband bought it, we kind of enlarged it. So you and your husband actually purchased it from? Yes. The Christiansons? Right. oh, okay. So your husband's name? Was Will Anderson [aka Big Will]. So Helen and Will actually became the owners. We were the first black - well, actually the second owner. We were the first black people to own it. Which year did you buy it? We bought it in - what was it ? 1980. It had to be '80 because that's the first thing we did when we got married. That's why we got married, so we could...I mean not That's very romantic. [Laughing] He didn't want to go into business without being married. So anyway, we got married and we bought Hamburger Heaven. Wow. What was it like operating the business? In the beginning it was fun. We used to get up - because we used to stay open until twelve or one o'clock in the morning. Back then we were like really busy. Things was good. The economy was good. I mean we was busy.