A life-long love affair

Andrea Roberts
Times Intern

 

A black-and-white photograph showing a group of smiling young men having fun in front of an A&W restaurant hangs in the Strathmore A&W, with Jon Dolphin standing front and centre – the man who still regularly continues to enjoy a meal at the fast food restaurant 60 years later.
The loyal customer first stepped into the restaurant when he was only 17 years old and has been enamoured with it ever since. His first love, however, was his wife who he used to meet up with at the restaurant.
“Back then we used to meet our girlfriends there,” reminisced the 83-year-old Dolphin. “We would meet there and have a hamburger and a milkshake.”
When the picture was taken the franchise was a little different. Waitresses brought food to parked cars on roller-skates while music played in the parking lot; Dolphin and his friends would meet up to dance the jitterbug and have a good time.
Nowadays, Dolphin still meets up with friends at A&W.
The restaurant has been a staple part of his life, especially during the 25 years that he was a truck driver, a job he loved to do even if the roads were narrower than they are today.
Margery Weatherby is a long-time friend and was amazed that Dolphin has been going to the A&W for most of his life.
“I think not only is it good for the A&W to have a continued patron for the past 60 years but he has been coming here since he was a teenager,” said Weatherby. “He is still going there, it is absolutely amazing.”
She said that he is one of the nicest people she knows and explained that Dolphin had pointed the picture out to her while they had been having a meal at the restaurant together.
“It is nice to go to a place where people know you and call you by name makes it more like home,” said Dolphin. “So hopefully I will be able to enjoy eating and greeting at the A&W for many more years to come.”