White Light Stories

[kdown]

The White Light holds many favorite memories for those of us that were around when it was open. I have three.

September 18, 1958. Our son was born late evening at Hayswood. Dad, Mom and I left the hospital around 11 or so and went to the White Light. Prentice Brammer was behind the counter. Yep we ate the little " burgers "

In late 60s a bunch of us were helping a friend move. Everybody got hungary. I went to the White Light and ordered a 100 hamburgers. Prentice didn't believe me and made me pay for them before he would fix them.....LOL

Spending my school lunch money at the White Light instead of at the school cafeteria and playing the pinball machine

[tkcomer]

I'll never forget this. As a wee little kid, I was sitting at the counter when they set a glass of water on the counter for a patron. It was covered in condensation. I watched that glass slowly move a little bit across the counter. I'd look around and no one was paying attention to it. I'd watch it move a little more. I was spooked. A few years later I realized what was actually happening. But I still remember that day like it was yesterday. And I loved those burgers. That might be why dad stopped at White Castle when we went to the city. We both loved those little burgers. I still do.

[Magees]

When mom and day bought Magee’s back in 1972, Hayswood and White Light were the two biggest standing orders we had. Ever Monday and Wednesday (as I recall) dad would load up the bakery van and go out to the hospital and the White Light. I miss both of those places.

[lauralee]

I was pregnant with my first child and lived near by. Yep, I craved those thick, smooth milk shakes, had one every nite. In three months my doc put me on a diet. I was gaining too much weight just starting out. lol I loved the sausage sandwiches too with mustard and yes I sure miss it.

[mom36]

You can't find any burgers like that now days. I remember as a little tyke pulling up and having to go in and place our order. The smell would make my tummy growl out MMMmmmm, I'm hungry. LOL

[jmarks211]

A little history for Chuck, But our Aunt Jessie and John Hamilton had owned the White Light until they closed and moved to Frankfort KY. Jessie was Grandma (Mary Iva Crump) sister.

[swfljim]

Being a Florida resident now, and someone who still misses Maysville on a daily basis...I've had to explain many times to my wife and others down here just how good a "whitelight" burger was. I think my fascination with the little burger has them worried at times. I have taken it upon myself to replicate as close as possible...the small "whitelight" hamburger. By the way, we don't have White Castles in Florida (they were entirely different than whitelight's anyway). Through experimentation, I believe I have come close...this included purchasing a small used commercial flat-top griddle...which can also make an awesome Philadelphia Cheese Steak if anyone is interested. I would like to know if any BBS readers have tried themselves to duplicate the "whitelight" burger...and if so, what were the results? I often wander just how the ground beef was seasoned at the whitelight (just salt and pepper?) If you've experimented at home, please post your results.

[kybikertrash]

I worked at the White Light in high school from my sphomore year until it caught fire in 1981. There is not enough time in my day to tell about all the things that happened in the time I worked there.

In addition to the fact that I worked there, I spent many of my school lunch breaks there. The pinball machine was gone when I worked there, instead there was that jukebox. I like a jukebox but when there is a song that is being palyed over and over and you have to stand there for 6 or 8 hours and listen to it, you start to hate that song real quick. One example would be "Whip it" by Devo....I hate that song to this day!

Lots of weekends, especially Sundays, there were only high school kids working all day so you can imagine the pranks that we were playing on each other. My junior year I had a key and opened up on Sunday mornings.

What I miss the most is some of the regular customers and the Brammer brothers that have passed away. Prentice was there every weekday when we were in there for lunch and in the summer I worked with Prentice and then there was Leon who took care of a lot of the back room chores....getting the hamburger ordered and making the little ground beef "pellets" that were later smashed on the grill with the spatula to make those famous burgers.

I really think the reason that no one has been able to copy the taste is because of the buns and the ground beef. Restaurants that have tried to copy the burgers always have too much bun (they use those buns that look more like a roll and the tops are way too round and tall, the WL buns were flat) and the beef that Howard Brammer used was from Larry's IGA and it was very lean and always fresh.
<br />****** Double Post *********</br>
I would like to know if any BBS readers have tried themselves to duplicate the "whitelight" burger...and if so, what were the results? I often wander just how the ground beef was seasoned at the whitelight (just salt and pepper?) If you've experimented at home, please post your results.

No salt or pepper that I can remember.

[kdown]

Other Brammer brothers were Wardlow, Gene, Jackie as well as Leon, Prentice and Howard also one sister Mary Sally. I think that's all.

[patches-4]

I can remember when I was little my Mom and I would go in and order 2 hamburgers each and I would get a carton of chocolate milk. We would get them to go and then I had to wait until we got home to eat them, and it was a long way from 3rd street to Stonelick Rd!! I can still smell them today. And your right nobody has been able to make them the same since.

[glenda]

i loved the whitelight hamburgers as well my whole family we at them all the time miss them .no one can come close to them

[ponto]

When mom and day bought Magee’s back in 1972, Hayswood and White Light were the two biggest standing orders we had. Ever Monday and Wednesday (as I recall) dad would load up the bakery van and go out to the hospital and the White Light. I miss both of those places.

Can you still make the original hamburger buns ??????

[lauralee]

I have bought small buns like that a few years ago but haven't found them lately. Can't recall the brand name, I'm thinking Kearns, it was a 24 pack. Anyway I use the small dinner rolls, slice in half, butter both sides and grill. I then take the small ball of fresh lean meat, nowhere is as good as Larry's IGA was, smash it and place a small amount of dehydrated onions that's been soaking in water. They cook really fast so be on your toes. The mustard I mix an equal amount of with the hamburger pickle juice. Put your burger on the grilled bun a splash of mixed mustard, hamburger pickles and there you go. It's very close to the real thing my taste buds say.

[swfljim]

lauralee,
Where did you get the idea of combining the mustard and hamburger pickle juice?

[Chuck]

A little history for Chuck, But our Aunt Jessie and John Hamilton had owned the White Light until they closed and moved to Frankfort KY. Jessie was Grandma (Mary Iva Crump) sister.

Thanks for the history and memories Sis. Aunt Jessie was in Hayswood Hospital and you where just a little baby. Don't remember why but I can take you to the room she was in. She made mom go get me some burgers cause I looked like I was hungry. It was nice having that memory come back again.

[Magees]

Can you still make the original hamburger buns ??????

I do not see why not.

[kdown]

It's very close to the real thing my taste buds say.
I am printing this out and gonna give it a shot this weekend. I can taste them now

[snowtiger]

Hey, nobody is saying anything about those WONDERFUL FISH SANDWICHES!!! I was 5, 6 or 7 and I would always have to get a fish sandwich. I haven't ate a fish sandwich like that since then!!!
I think my Aunt Betty's minihamburgers came the closest at the Little Chef restaurant in Plumville.

[Magees]

I do not see why not.

Wight Light Buns
lb. oz.
4 O Water
0 6 Yeast
0 12 Sugar
0 12 Shortening
0 2 Salt
0 4 Milk Powder
7 0 Bread Flour

Mix, rest, and then cut into 2 pounds balls. Rest. Cut each 2 pound dought ball on dought devider (dought devider makes 36 little bits out of the 2 pound ball.)
Hand roll each little bit dought into a bun, and place 54 on a sheet pan. 6 buns in a row by 9 buns in a row to a pan.

[tkcomer]

Maybe my memory is shot, but didn't they used dried onions that had been soaked in water to reconstitute them? Then, right before the burger was done, put a little on it and smash them in, topped by the bun so it would warm and get the steam off the onions. The buns were special. Never found them anywhere else. The donut shop tried to duplicate them. Remember Little Jim's? They were good, just not the same. That bun was different.

[lauralee]

Yep the onions are dried, you can get them in the stores, soak them in water and add to the burgers while they're cooking. A girl that worked behind the counter told my boyfriend back then who told me. So that's how I've been fixing them ever since. Don't know if that was for sure the secret, no one said.

[Cobra]

The hamburgers were good but I really liked the Larry Boy's.

[farmgirl]

so had anyone tried the little burgers Jim Gallenstein fixes in his food wagon & is stationed at AA Outfitters most weekends?? Mmmm good. Taste amazingly close to White Light burgers if you ask me.

[patches-4]

Wight Light Buns
lb. oz.
4 O Water
0 6 Yeast
0 12 Sugar
0 12 Shortening
0 2 Salt
0 4 Milk Powder
7 0 Bread Flour

Mix, rest, and then cut into 2 pounds balls. Rest. Cut each 2 pound dought ball on dought devider (dought devider makes 36 little bits out of the 2 pound ball.)
Hand roll each little bit dought into a bun, and place 54 on a sheet pan. 6 buns in a row by 9 buns in a row to a pan.

Do you sell them at the Bakery? I might try the hamburger thing but am no good at making bread!

[annie]

As a child, my grandparents would take my sis & I to the White Light. I remember the small bottles of coke and the sign outside that said the price of the little burgers. 5 cents each I recall and that was probably after I started school. My grandfather would order two for each of us kids and a Coke. We'd sit on the barstools and I remember watching them fix those burgers on the grill.

I've printed out lauralee's post and Magee's recipe. We'll be trying the out as well this weekend!

Another thing - my grandfather always shopped at Larry's IGA. Lots of good memories there, too! Just don't get that type of friendly service anymore from these bigger grocery stores. He knew everyone by name, as did the gals who worked the 'front' at the cash registers. The 'bagboy' took your groceries to your car & loaded them up for you, always asking about family and relaying the latest news.

Thanks for my memories as well!

[patches-4]

Didn't Larry's use to deliver groceries too? I remember my Grandmother getting her's from there and it seems like I remember them delivering them to her.

[farmgirl]

Larry's did deliver groceries & he always had the freshest beef & pork around. (In all fairness, Clyde's also used to deliver groceries)

[patches-4]

Yes, they both did alot of customer service you don't get today anywhere. I had forgotten about Clyde's doing that as Grandma always used Larry's.

[glee]

Bought them by the sack and always went back .Man I really miss them little burgers .:(

[mark]

..........several of us 11th graders use to "sneak" out of Mr. Jett's History class ( thru the coat room door ) and go hang out at the White Light when it was on the corner of Limestone St & 3rd.


Sometimes we wouldn't return. We just simply mingled in the halls of MHS after the class bell rang. Ahh, those were the days.....

That was in 1976.............see ya mark

[maysvillebulldog]

There was absolutely nothing like the White Light hamburger. My kids love White Castle hamburgers but there is absolutely no comparison. The closest competition White Light has ever had were the Little Jim's from Jim's Donut shop. I remember my parents taking my best friend and myself to the Hunter House on Friday nights and the Canteen on Saturday. If we were lucky, we would stop at the White Light for burgers and a small glass bottled coke. Yummy!

[kdown]

" Need A Ride, Call Clyde "

[cincydude1981]

They used the left over pickle juice to clean the grill. We always hung out there while growing up. I can't remember her name but she drove a doodle bug so when she wasnt paying attention we would pick it up and put it on the curb.
White light was also a great meeting place before we would go out.

[Magees]

Do you sell them at the Bakery? I might try the hamburger thing but am no good at making bread!

We will bake the buns, we just have to work up a price. More than like you have to buy all 54 of the buns. Come in and well see.

[kybikertrash]

..........several of us 11th graders use to "sneak" out of Mr. Jett's History class ( thru the coat room door ) and go hang out at the White Light when it was on the corner of Limestone St & 3rd.

My friends and I used to sneak out of school also to go to the Whight Light. Many times we were almost caught when the principal would walk down Limestone on the way to the post office in the afternoon. We would all duck down behind the windows so we wouldn't be seen. Do you think the adults working there knew what we were up to? LOL

And yes the oinions were the dehydrated kind. The bought them in a huge container and one of my least favorite jobs was to go to the back to soak onions. We would use a pickle pail and fill it with the dried onions and then fill it with water to let them soak. Almost makes me want to cry again just thinking about it. My eyes would water bad!

One thing mentioned before was toasing the buns. The bottoms were not toasted from what I remember. The procedure was like this.... the "pellet" of hamburger was put on the grill then a large pinch of the onions were placed on the hamburger, then the pellet was smashed down flat on the grill smashing the onions into the meat then the tops of the buns were buttered with a paintbrush from a pan of melted butter that sat on the corner of the grill. The tops of the buns were then placed on the grill on the side that was not as hot as the main grilling surface. The bottoms were un-toasted and laid on the counter in front of the grill and they each got a squirt of mustard and a pickle. I don't ever remember mixing pickle juice with the mustard. The burgers were flipped and soon after the tops were placed on them and a moment later they were scooped up (two at a time) and placed on the buns, rolled in two's in a paper wrappper a placed in a bag with the famous saying "buy them by the sack, you'll always come back" printed on the sides.

The Larry Boys were very popular when I worked there.
<br />****** Double Post *********</br>
They used the left over pickle juice to clean the grill. We always hung out there while growing up. I can't remember her name but she drove a doodle bug so when she wasnt paying attention we would pick it up and put it on the curb.
White light was also a great meeting place before we would go out.

The pickle juice was used to clean the grill and the coffee pots were cleaned with ice and salt. The only dishes to be done were the coffe mugs and they were washed in a small sink under the counter. Once a week we soaked them in bleach to get them white again. I still have a coffee mug from the white light somewhere packed away.

There were two sisters at St. Patrick who drove a VW and the back end of their car was picked up and set up on the curb almost daily by their classmates. They got many parking tickets but I think they always got out of paying them because the police figured out pretty quick that it was a daily prank. Nobody could parallel park that badly.

[ponto]

We will bake the buns, we just have to work up a price. More than like you have to buy all 54 of the buns. Come in and well see.

ok, the way I see it, from reading this thread, we have the information, a source for the original buns, and other items necessary. Let's find a place with a cooking surface, and a business license that will host our party.

Make it a fund raiser for a group, and make it happen.

I will place an order for the first 6 burgers off the grill.

Let's Party......................and raise some money for a good cause......

[jmarks211]

Yeah, I remember some not much. I know I could not wait for Aunt Jessie to call mom and ask her too bring us kids over to the resturant and at that time I think they where located accross from the Russell Theater. The big white building that is now boarded up. I can not remember if that was where the fire was at though.

Any way we had lived in Aberdeen at the time under the bridge, So it was a big adventure to for us girls to walk the bridge so we would spend the day and go see the Delta Queen which at that time I think it docked there, not for sure on that but the Delta was in town all the time back then. But the main treat was having hamburgers and I swear they had the bigest ice cream cone on Earth.

[littlelee]

ok, the way I see it, from reading this thread, we have the information, a source for the original buns, and other items necessary. Let's find a place with a cooking surface, and a business license that will host our party.

Make it a fund raiser for a group, and make it happen.

I will place an order for the first 6 burgers off the grill.

Let's Party......................and raise some money for a good cause......


This would be an Awesome fundraiser for Ryan's Fight for Sight!!! What do ya' think guys?

[kdown]

If you are really gonna do something like this why not ask Howard Brammer to help. I'm sure he would be thrilled to help

[kybikertrash]

Now that I have thought about it, I am not sure we even buttered or toasted the little buns at all. I do remember them being placed on top the burger, though, once they were flipped. I will see if I can find someone I worked with that would remember. Mike Crawford at Kroger's Liqour was the a manager for a while. Maybe he would remember. Tony Browning was also a manager, may he rest in peace. Sadly most of the people I orked with are deceased.

I do remember toasting the Larry Boy buns.

[tkcomer]

kybikertrash, don't you feel bad for burning the White Light down and ruining it for the rest of us? Ha, Ha!

[Beatles]

I may have been the last person to have eaten a burger at the White Light. I stopped in late and got a couple to take with me. They locked the door behind me and the next morning I hear it burned! Man, what a bummer that was to hear!
<br />****** Double Post *********</br>
How about someone buying and reopen the place! What a dream come true that would be!

[SilverFox]

Can we just turn back the clock? I want a life filled with White Light burgers, Pasquales strombolis, Magees tarts and a very fast metabolism. I also remember the Hunter House and the canteen at the Boy's Club on Saturday nights. When I fixed burgers for my children and their friends, I would toast the buns in a skillet, one of my son's friends always said they were the best burgers he has ever had.

[kdown]

Oh My...The canteen at the Boy's Club...Hubba, Hubba, Hubba.........LOL

[kybikertrash]

kybikertrash, don't you feel bad for burning the White Light down and ruining it for the rest of us? Ha, Ha!


Look....I had a water tight alibi....you can't prove anything.

I did work the night before and had asked to have the early shift off that day, but I was scheduled to work that evening . The morning of the fire I got out of bed early and on my way out the door I picked up the phone to call the White Light to order an egg sandwich to eat on my way to a day camp I was helping with and my father asked "who are you calling?" and I answered "the White Light" and he said "don't bother it's gone. It caught fire this morning."
Dad had police scanners back in the day and he heard it on there.
<br />****** Double Post *********</br>
Funny farmgirl would mention Jim Gallenstein's burgers. Today my boys were on their bikes and they told me a man was downtown selling food out of a trailer. The asked if I would drive them down to get something to eat, and guess what? It was Jim Gallenstein. He worked at the White Light in high school about the same time frame when I worked there. He said he did remember putting pickle juice in the mustard. He is cooking up his own brand of mini burgers (little buddys). They taste hauntingly familiar.

When I was at the White Light every weekday we had a large order phone in from Brownings for lunch. Today Jim said he had cooked over 400 little buddys and I jokingly asked him if he had an order from Brownings and strangely enough he answered yes, but he said he had to turn it down.

He is set up across from the Maysville High School on second street where Carpenter Motors used to be.

[kdown]

How long do you soak the dehydrated onion ?

[lauralee]

just til they're soft you can tell, I start soaking them about a half hour before I start cooking the burgers. It should tell you on the bottle of onions. Good luck

[kdown]

I'm gonna do it this weekend just as soon as I find some little buns.

[lauralee]

I'm thinking the buns I found once were Kearns, but the dinner rolls will work, just split them good eating

[JIMMY]

White Light SLIDERS... OOOH. You know why they call em sliders don't ya???

[chester]

My dad worked in Indiana at one time, and only came home every other weekend. Those weekends he would stop at the White Light and get a big bag of burgers and a six pack of pop--good memories--good eatin'!!

[Magees]

ok, the way I see it, from reading this thread, we have the information, a source for the original buns, and other items necessary. Let's find a place with a cooking surface, and a business license that will host our party.

Make it a fund raiser for a group, and make it happen.

I will place an order for the first 6 burgers off the grill.

Let's Party......................and raise some money for a good cause......

If that the way you feel about it. You should talk to Mike down at the Maysville Players. See what you can work out for Parking Lot Picnic.

[kybikertrash]

At the white light we soaked them till the were soft (sometimes longer) and then drained them and put them in a bowl in the fridge next to the meat. I'm pretty sure that when I worked there the buns did come from Kearns.

[Magees]

At the white light we soaked them till the were soft (sometimes longer) and then drained them and put them in a bowl in the fridge next to the meat. I'm pretty sure that when I worked there the buns did come from Kearns.

Mr. Magee did the buns for alot of year, then in after mom and dad got the bakery we did the buns for the White Light for about a year. Kearns just came up with a lower price.
>> So, Magee's Bakery made up the buns form the fist day the White light open until 1974. Then Kearns from 1974 untill the fire.

[buckeye]

The White Light , where you buy them by the sack and you will always come back, was more than a restraunt. It was a place to be in the sixties and seventies and into the early 80s. I remember eating breakfast there too. as there honey buns on the grill was real tasty. Whow, it was like Cheers as when you walked in , everyone knew your name.

[ponto]

Howard Brammer, 83 year old local veteran, is known to many as the man behind the famous White Light Restaurant.

Brammer, has been selected as Grand Marshal for this year's July 4th parade sponsored by the city of Maysville.

Congratulation Mr. Brammer

[snowtiger]

Ponto, you thinking what I'm thinking??