Kow Korner
1956 - 2000
I recall it like it was yesterday...... scraping the floor board of my car for change for just shy of a buck, for a sackful of burgers. Burgers that weren’t from anywhere else, because it was a place like nowhere else ......Kow Korner. Oak Harbor’s true first burger joint and drive thru. However, it wasn’t just a burger joint. It’s a memory, an iconic part of Oak Harbor. Something special tied into a mix of nostalgia. Was it how we’d cruise the street back and forth on Friday nights, to see whom of our high school friends were parked outside? How we’d sit on the hood of our cars, watching other people cruise by - as the cigarette we snuck curled tendrils of smoke into the crisp night air? How it was a gathering place after football games, or school events? How families would come to enjoy a night out? Car shows and meet ups? Or was it simply those amazing burgers - the ones that tasted of our joys and sorrows as we grew up, moved away, but knew we could come back and that icon, that landmark ~ would great us on the way into town. Sadly, we moved away, and the icon went away. The memories that persevere are endearing. Much like the historic windmill at City Beach, or Chris’ Bakery downtown, icons that have disappeared leaving a hole in our charming and sleepy little town. Much as Chris’ has come back .....we’d love to see our landmark, and the burgers, of a by gone era, come back as well.
