Sunday, July 27, 2008

Betty

Sunday, July 27, 2008

From time to time I'll be mentioning Betty, so allow me to introduce her to you.  Betty Wheatley is the "youngest" 70+-year-old lady I know, and she's becoming my dear friend.  Besides being beautiful, smart, and interesting, she was a fixture on Route 66 for 41 years prior to her retirement about 8 years ago.  Betty was the proprietor of Dairy Ranch, the snack bar adjoining the famous now-defunct Buffalo Ranch two miles east of Afton.  Betty is known by everyone in these parts (as well as scads of travelers from all over the world) for her buffalo burgers, limeades, milkshakes, and lime squeezes.  And oh, does Betty have tales to tell!  I'm now the incredibly fortunate recipient of her reminiscences.  She comes to visit and we talk and talk and talk nearly every time I'm here.  She feeds my unquenchable needd for stories from the Mother Road of the past.  And if that's not enough, to feed my body she brings me goodies like spring honey from her friend's beehives and the most awesome Amish-churned butter.  Now that's what I call a friend!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just finished dinner, but this post is making me hungry all over again!  Limeade and milkshakes are two things I love.  Something tells me I would love lime squeezes, too, although I have no idea what they are.  Sure wish I could have visited Betty's Dairy Ranch.

Anonymous said...

Donna, I'd  never heard of a lime squeeze either, but the way Betty explains it, it's simply shaved ice with unsweetened lime juice squeezed over it.  She said all the kids loved it.  I must try it some time, but it sounds like it might make one do a lot of puckering!  Laurel

Anonymous said...

Sounds a lot like an all-natural version of a piragua.  Piraguas are Puerto Rican snow cones, made by shaving ice from a large ice block and pouring flavored syrup over the top.  Something tells me Betty's are better.

Anonymous said...

We have those shaved ice cones in several places here, but this appears to be different because, if I understood Betty correctly, it's just lime juice right out of the lime, no sugar added.
Laurel