Atomic Subs
Found these old photos my Father took of the Atomic Subs. Atomic Subs was a chain of sandwich shops started in Lawrence, MA in the early 60’s by a entrepreneur named Bill Littlewood.
Although this is a New England story it really is a story about the American entrepreneurial spirit. While all of the uncertainty was going on in the world, The Cuban Missile Crisis for example, this guy decides to open a Submarine sandwich shop and call it “Atomic Sub” featuring “The Atlas”, a three foot
long super sandwich.
These pictures are from one of the Lawrence, MA stores at 401 Broadway and show Bill & his wife Marge.
Atomic Sub grew to about 20 plus stores with locations in South Lawrence, Lawrence, Chelmsford, Lowell, Billerica, Merrimac, Amesbury, Haverhill and Ipswich MA. There were also locations in Salem and Nashua NH. Some towns had multiple locations and I am sure I missed some. I remember going to the Salem store as a kid, it was on Route 28 where the Burger King is now in a big A frame building that used to be the VW dealership. I understand that the Nashua store was right down the street from the retroplanet.com world headquarters. The story goes that because of a dishonest bookkeeper, Bill was forced to close most of his stores. The Salem store remained open the longest but pretty sure he had nothing to do with it towards the end. He moved to Brentwood NH where he opened a little variety store and lived out the rest of his days. My Father recalls that sometime along the way he was approached by a big company who wanted to buy his company and bring it national and that he turned them down. Who knows if things had gone a little differently we might be going into Atomic Subs for lunch instead of Subway.
Ahhh…Atomic Sub in Salem. I remember the Italian subs with oil and the “squirrelly characters” that used to run the place. Between it being the VW garage and before Atomic we used to go there to race slot cars!!! For a kid on a bike in Salem it was closer than going all the way down to Modler’s Haven in Lawrence (right after the train bridge at the bottom of “Epidemic Hill” by the cemetery).
I remember going to Atomic Sub in Salem on my lunch/dinner break when I worked at Market Basket. It was just at the end of the parking lot of the store and it gave you enough time to smoke a cigarette. I always ordered a steak and cheese sub. This had to be about the greasiest sandwich on earth but I devoured every last bite. The steak was always a little burnt and crunchy on the ends but that just added to its’ appeal.
I remember on really cold days trudging across the wind blown parking lot only to walk into the shop and my eyeglasses would immediately fog over from the heat of the place. I don’t think I ate there too often. It seemed like I would always bring my sandwich back to the store and wolf it down in the lunchroom. I don’t think we had more than 20 minutes for a break. On the few times that I did stay at Atomic and eat my sandwich there, I distinctly remember there were a few annoying flies that were always buzzing around while you were eating. I also remember the front glass was always fogged up in the winter. Another memory I have while sitting in the shop gazing out the window at all the traffic was
one particular site that most lifelong Salem residents close to my age may remember…Morbid Mary, walking as fast as she could down Rt 28. Where she actually lived and why she acted the way she did is still a mystery to me…
HAHAHA…..Morbid Mary….too funny!!!!
My father owned a garage accross the street from the original Atomic Sub on Broadway. I think it was the first place in Lawrence to make a sub and we would dazzle out-of-town relatives but bringing one to them
I remember Atomic Pizza in Salem NH. To this day, I can’t hear the sound effects from ‘Space Invaders’ without thinking of pizza, because I remember playing it there for the first time around 1982 or so. (We had the ‘home version’ for the Atari, but this was way better.) As for their pizza, I want to say it had a much sweeter sauce than most places, but it wasn’t bad. But, we were an Olympic Pizza family so we usually stuck with that.
Sunday night was sub nite in Salem NH on Bagnell ave. A short trip thru the A frame door. Before BK and the Plaza. They used to slice the meat per sub to order. Best mayo and lettuce on a turkey sub. I wanted to get just mayo and lettuce but dad said no. There was a heavy set gentleman making the subs that kept moving his glasses up his nose with his finger while making your order. No one ever was sick, great food, and never any recall of meat products. I can recall a fly or two in the window but that was life in the 60’s Remeber Quintals.
Devon Berube I don’t know If you remember me I was friends with your mom and dad Linda and Jed my name is Tony Angelone