Former employees of Sonic pose outside the store in the early 1980s. Back row, from left to right: Kathryn Land, Paul Land, Jeff Land, Sonja, Beth, Janie, and Juli Land. Front row: Peggy, Freda Kittle, Jon Land, and Kerry.
Sonic, 716 S. Wall St., will be changing hands when it opens on Monday, Aug. 1.
Blake Silvers
Paul Land became partial owner of the Calhoun Sonic in 1979.
Contributed
Former employees of Sonic pose outside the store in the early 1980s. Back row, from left to right: Kathryn Land, Paul Land, Jeff Land, Sonja, Beth, Janie, and Juli Land. Front row: Peggy, Freda Kittle, Jon Land, and Kerry.
Contributed
Calhoun’s Sonic restaurant, owned by the Land family, has served Calhoun for 43 years.
Blake Silvers
Back row: Jon and Jeff Land. Front row: Juli, Paul, Kathryn, and Kaitlyn Land.
After 43 years of serving the community, Calhoun’s Sonic Drive-In, 716 S. Wall St., is finally changing hands.
In 1979, the Land family came to Calhoun from Long Beach, California. Paul Land had been working two jobs, a police officer and a contractor, working long hours to make ends meet.
His sister-in-law put him in contact with a Sonic franchise owner based out of Oklahoma City.
He had three different franchises available — and the Lands chose Calhoun, the first location they had visited, to hang their hats.
“For us as kids, it was kind of shell-shock,” said Jon Land, one of the Lands’ sons.
Land was the general manager to start, a partial owner of the business. He would go on to buy out every other partial owner and own that location for himself.
The Lands treated their crew like family: they’d help buy groceries and pay bills, give gas money or rides, even helping to buy a car for one staff member.
“Not everyone is like that,” said Kaitlyn Land, one of the Lands’ daughters.
The family all pitched in, too. Each of the Lands’ four children recounted working there, and their parents working hard, even cooking if they were short-handed.
According to Kaitlyn, their parents actually met at a drive-in, too, just over a decade and a half before they ever considered Calhoun.
“I love the story,” she said.
Daughter Juli, who worked for a time as the GM, said it’ll be a bit surreal for things to be over.
“Sometimes it’s mind-boggling,” said Juli.
She explained that people are used to them being there. Jeff, their other son, also echoed that sentiment — that wherever he goes around the area, someone knows someone who worked at the Sonic. People still come through the drive-thru that have been eating there for twenty or more years.
“I enjoyed the small town feel of it,” he said.
Contributing to that was the fact that the Lands were always accessible — if anyone had a problem at Sonic, they could look Paul and Kathryn up in the phone book and reach out to them rather than a nameless, faceless person at corporate.
Now, the Lands are getting older — Paul just turned 79 — and they’ve decided it’s finally time to pass the torch. Between staffing issues and just having been in the business so long, the Lands have decided to pass it on to Lance Burns, who’s moving to town with his family.
“There’s opportunity for him to reap the rewards,” said Jon.
Once Sonic closes on Sunday, July 31, that’s it — the Lands will hand it over to the Burns, and a new family will get to carry forward their legacy. Jon is pretty sure that they’ll do just fine.
The kids all seem pretty sure it’ll be hard to get their parents to stop working, but each seemed equally hopeful they’ll get a chance to get some well-earned rest. It’s been a long road, and the kids are all proud of their parents for getting themselves, and their family, here.
“God has definitely blessed them, and their faith has carried them through some tough times,” said Jon.
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