| A Saturday night trip to the drive-in movie with a | | | | buck? These were all part of the teenage years |
| date and a Sunday afternoon ride topped off with | | | | for most pre-boomers. |
| a burger and shake delivered to your car by | | | | Another enjoyable part of those glorious years |
| someone on roller skates was what we called a | | | | was the car hop restaurant. Although curb-service |
| great weekend in the 1950s. These experiences | | | | had been around since the 1920s and |
| only exist in the recesses of our minds, but the | | | | drive-through restaurants came on the scene in |
| memories are beautifully vivid and certainly fun. | | | | the mid-30s, car hop operations began in the '40s |
| At the peak of popularity in the late '50s and | | | | and peaked about 10 years later. The roller |
| early '60s, there were some 4,000 drive-in | | | | skating servers were the "show biz" part of this |
| theaters across the United States. So this | | | | phenomenon. |
| American icon, which got started in 1934 with | | | | While there are some car hop restaurants today, |
| only a handful of locations scattered around the | | | | the skaters are long gone. Yet movies depicting |
| country, had a good run before other | | | | that era suggest the fad was bigger and lasted |
| entertainment options, soaring land values and | | | | longer than it really did. Can you say, "American |
| revenue erosion shut them down forever. | | | | Graffiti?" The history on both sides of the car hop |
| Although some families took their small children | | | | period is interesting. The precursor to today's fast |
| (kids were free) to the show hoping they would | | | | food restaurants dates back to 1921 when White |
| be asleep soon after the movie began at twilight, | | | | Castle, a Mid-West chain, offered a limited menu |
| the crowd tended to be young people. Many of | | | | featuring hamburgers. About the same time, |
| them were on dates and the safety of the | | | | A&W franchised its root beer locations. Over the |
| drive-in was preferred to the tawdriness of | | | | years, these concepts developed into the food |
| lover's lane, which led to the popular nickname | | | | operations we know so well, today. However, the |
| "Passion Pit." We all remember the fogged up | | | | term "Fast Food" was first used in 1951. |
| windows and other telltale signs that the people in | | | | Interestingly, McDonald's did not have a |
| the cars were doing more than watching the | | | | drive-through until 1975. |
| "Return of the Creature from the Black Lagoon." | | | | The facts are nice to know, but it's the feelings |
| Who can forget those cheesy ads with the | | | | from being there that count. Next time you pass |
| dancing hot dogs, sodas and popcorn reminding us | | | | the site where a drive-in theater once stood or |
| that the concession stand was open and there | | | | go to a restaurant with your grandkids, tell them |
| were only so many minutes left before the show | | | | about the good times our generation had back in |
| resumed? Or, the speakers that fit on your | | | | the olden days. That's when a carload of your |
| window and delivered lousy sound quality (ever | | | | friends could go to the drive-in for a buck and a |
| start to drive off before putting it back on the | | | | burger and shake was less than a buck, plus it |
| stand)? And, how about dollar night in the middle | | | | was delivered to you on skates. What fun we |
| of the week when a carload got in for just a | | | | had. |