Looking for Information on the Hinky-Dinks & the Brooklawn Hamburger

Hi Bill; 

 

I recently found your Notebook after renewing old acquaintances with fellow members of the GHS Class of \’66, and have been a regular reader since. Over the years

 

I\’ve had a couple of things on my mind about the old stomping grounds that I couldn\’t satisfy through normal internet means, and thought maybe you could help.  

 

Having attended Highland Park School from 1954 to 1958, I was scolded regularly for playing on the \”Hinky-Dinks\”. The \”Hinks\”, if you\’re unfamiliar, were long piles of dirt originally intended as elevation for a railroad line that was never built. I\’ve managed over the years to learn a lot about the proposed railroad and its demise, but the thing that has nagged at me is the origin of the name \”Hinky-Dinks\”. It had to mean something, once upon a time. 

 

The other thing that I have sought in vain for, for a very long time, is a picture of the \”BeefBurger\”. The \”Beef\” was a hamburger place in the Brooklawn Shopping Center in a building that was shaped like a hamburger. Try convincing some people that the place you hung out at as a teen was a building shaped like a hamburger. 

 

Any of this sounds familiar? Is there hope?  

 

Any light you could shed on any of this would be appreciated, as I have several others interested at this point,  

 

Thanks, 

Ron Brittin 

Sewell (Mantua Township), NJ