Vick's Pizza

Great Pizza Great Times

Just recently while enjoying a great pizza here in Texas, my mind began wandering back to Circleville, Ohio, where in my teens, my friends and I frequented the oldest pizza establishment in town, Vick's Pizza. Vick's was established in 1961 and today it like many other small businesses no longer exists. It was torn down a number of years ago. Before it was a pizza joint it was a hamburger restaurant and gas station. Conveniently located, Vick's Pizza was only a block and a half from our homes. When I get a chance to visit my home town, I drive by where Vick's Pizza use to stand. Anytime you reminisce with anybody from Circleville, Vick's Pizza always becomes a part of the conversation.

Vick's had the best pizza and subs around, at least we thought so. All our high school friends would stop in after a football game or drop in during a cruising session to pick up a pizza or sub or try to eat it in the restaurant. The problem was that it only had about five or six tables plus a jukebox. So it did get crowded and noisy and Vick could not stand the noise. You could see it in his face. I don't know if his face was naturally red all the time or it turned that way when we showed up.

A smile comes across my face as I look back to our adventures at that pizza establishment. Vick's Pizza was owned by a man named Hollis Vickers, alias Vick. To be honest with you, he was not the most pleasant guy to be around but man was his pizza good! I recall that on each box the pizza came in, there was a printed stamp on the outside. When you accumulated ten stamps, you got a free pizza. We cleaned up on that promotion. I think we ate pizza every week. At least it seemed that way.

Ron, Bill and I had been thrown out of that joint more times than I can recall. We did not misbehave but Vickers could not stand a lot of noise and we did talk, joke and laugh loudly, just like most teens. When he couldn't take it anymore, he would tell us eat up and leave. So we would gobble down the pizza and chug down our Mountain Dew. (Ya-Hoo) He actually treated all the noisy teens that way. Vick could get away with it because, if my memory serves me right, he was the only pizza place in town.

I recall a time in 1965 we stopped in for a pizza and he told us he didn't want any trouble from us. Trouble from us?  I guess we were becoming recognizable and notorious for one reason or another. After getting our pizza and sitting down at the table, I stood up and walked over to the jukebox looked back at Vick and selected a song I really enjoyed. Although the song was not a big hit, it just was a great new sound. It only reached number 95 on the charts but I really, "I Can't Explain" by The Who. (I still do today.) I dropped two quarters in the jukebox and played "I Can't Explain" six times while all of us sang along with the song loudly with are disgusting out of key voices. During the third playing of the song, Vickers walked out unplugged the jukebox and told us to take our pizza and don't come back. Maybe I did play that song continuously to get on his nerves, but he certainly got on all of our nerves wandering if we would be kicked out everytime we went in just for talking and laughing.

All I can say I sure miss that great pizza and the great subs from Vick's. Sorry Vick for all the mischief Ron, Bill and I caused. I just can't explain why we did what we did but we were young and enjoying life the best we could in a small town in a establishment that had the best pizza in the world. Thanks for putting a smile on this old man's face while looking back to a very fun and memorable time.