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R E S O L U T I O N
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WHEREAS, Family owned and operated restaurants contribute to |
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the cultural richness of the Lone Star State, and Snapka's Drive Inn |
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has been a popular dining destination in Corpus Christi for more |
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than seven decades; and |
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WHEREAS, One day in the late 1940s, two brothers, Method and |
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Rudy Snapka, were driving out of Corpus Christi scouting for a place |
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to build a drive-in restaurant when their 1942 Oldsmobile broke |
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down in Robstown, and on July 5, 1948, they opened the first |
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Snapka's Drive Inn at the spot where their car had died; and |
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WHEREAS, In the early days, a hot dog was 10 cents, a |
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hamburger was 20 cents, and a glass of root beer was a nickel; the |
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first location was so successful that a second Snapka's was opened |
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on Leopard Street in Corpus Christi in 1953; that same year, the |
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restaurant added tacos to the menu, and in 1956, a third location |
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was opened on Weber Road; in 1969, the family purchased two Golden |
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Dome drive-ins, for a total of five locations in South Texas; and |
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WHEREAS, Method Snapka was named Outstanding Restaurateur of |
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the Year by the Corpus Christi Restaurant Association in 1967, and |
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three years later, he was elected president of the organization; |
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after Hurricane Celia damaged all five locations in August 1970, |
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two of them were shuttered, and the Robstown location was also |
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closed when Rudy Snapka retired in 1977; he passed away in 1995, and |
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his brother Method died in 2002; and |
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WHEREAS, Today, Snapka's Drive Inn continues to thrive at the |
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Weber Road and Leopard Street locations under the management of |
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Method Snapka's daughter, Kathy, and his wife, Maxine, who at the |
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age of 98 is one of the oldest original owners still running a |
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drive-in in the Lone Star State; Maxine's 100-year-old sister, |
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Gerda, oversees the Weber Road location; and |
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WHEREAS, Snapka's Drive Inn has won the loyalty of many area |
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residents while contributing to the prosperity of the local |
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economy, and over the course of nearly 75 years, it has attained the |
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status of a treasured community institution; now, therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 87th Texas |
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Legislature hereby commend the Snapka family of Corpus Christi on |
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the success of Snapka's Drive Inn and extend to them sincere best |
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wishes for the future; and, be it further |
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RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be |
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prepared for the family as an expression of high regard by the Texas |
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House of Representatives. |