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Sonic Siblings

By Shawn Linenberger - | Oct 16, 2002

The restaurant business is becoming a family tradition for the Thompson family.

Joe Thompson, who is a manager at Sonic in Tonganoxie, will soon be the manager at the Basehor location when it opens at U.S. Highway 24-40 and 155th Street.

Thompson’s grandfather also owned the Victory Junction restaurant at Kansas Highway 7 and Parallel Road east of Basehor. When his grandfather retired four years ago, Joe’s aunt took over there.

Soon, Joe will also have his own restaurant.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to own my own restaurant,” Joe said.

The 2001 Tonganoxie High School graduate and National Honor Society member also had aspirations in the computer business, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.

“It was offered to me at first,” Joe said. “They wanted a pretty good manager.

“It was more of an honor than anything and I didn’t feel like turning it down.”

The restaurant tradition was recently passed down to Joe’s sister Jennifer. The Tonganoxie 16-year-old, who works 40-hour weeks while a student through the Basehor-Linwood Virtual Charter School, said she enjoys working for her brother.

“You’d think it would be difficult because he is my brother, but he’s a really good manager,” Jennifer said.

Jennifer has worked at Sonic for about a month, and is in her first year at the charter school. She said she finds time for both her job and school, which consists of studying at home and taking quizzes and tests online.

Keeping with the family tradition, both Joe and Jennifer enjoy the restaurant business. Jennifer envisions staying with Sonic for some time, while Joe would like to eventually own a restaurant much like the one his grandfather created.

“My grandpa owned a family restaurant,” Joe said. “A sit-down restaurant has always been a dream of mine to have one of those.

“This is one of those steps to owning one of those.”