Still serving that frothy drink

One of the things I wrote about a few months ago that I missed about Amarillo was the delicious Orange Julius drink that was available at Western Plaza. Well, both Western Plaza and Orange Julius are long gone. At least from Amarillo. But the drink and its original sellers are not.

I got an e-mail last week from Wayne and Ellie Weaver, who opened up the original Orange Julius stand in the late 1960s.

"We opened the franchise with the mall in 1968 when it, like us, was young and bursting with enthusiasm and excitement," Weaver said. "We gained a wealth of friends and happy memories during our fifteen years there. And, along the way, opened a second location in an Abilene mall..."

The Weavers had retired and were living in Conroe near Houston, but have been drawn back into the business with a different name, Orange Squeeze. A brother suggested they open a stand at the First Monday Trade Days in Canton in east Texas. That's sort of the mecca for antique hunters for years.

"Taking his advice, we opened in May, 2007 and have been thankfully very well-received. We make everything exactly as we opened in 1968. Fresh orange juice, strawberries, pineapples and peaches. We also feature seven different types of quarter-pound kosher all-beef Hebrew National hot dogs. (I'm sounding more and more like a TV advertisement. Ha!). We are open on the Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday preceding the First Monday of every month. And we are having a blast!"