Oma Shaw

On January 19, 1970, I went crazy and let Virginia Sampley (Grier) talk me into buying a hamburger place on College Street. This hole in the wall was the busiest place in Waxahachie, with people waiting in long lines outside for a 20 cent hamburger and 5 cent drink. The first year, during the fall, the Optimist Club had a carnival on the square one Saturday. I will never forget filling up trash cans, tubs and anything else we could get our hands on, filling them with drinks and selling out of everything we had around midnight. I don’t remember an exact count of hamburgers we sold that day, but it had to be a record number. I was at this location on College Street for sixteen months. One day, the landlord told me he was having to tear down the building. I was glad, because every time it rained, the water from the street would come rushing through the door and flood the building. When the water would recede, I would have to take my shoes off, sweep the water out, and then mop the floor. We started looking for a place to move, found this place, another hole in the wall, and the rest was history. The bar, bar stools, grill and part of the ceiling I had on College Street are still at Oma’s today. These items are over forty years old. Jiffy Burger is the name I opened with in 1970, but everyone calls it Oma’s. I named it Jiffy Burger because it was a fast operation and we worked hard to move the people through the lines. We made numerous friends, heard a lot of jokes and a lot of stories right here at what I call my second home. As you sit back and enjoy “The Best Hamburger In Waxahachie,” remember, you are also part of the tradition.

-Oma Shaw