Image via Wikipedia

A Saturday night trip to the drive-in movie with a date and a Sunday afternoon ride topped off with a burger and shake delivered to your car by someone on roller skates was what we called a great weekend in the 1950s.  These experiences only exist in the recesses of our minds, but the memories are beautifully vivid and certainly fun. 

At the peak of popularity in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, there were some 4,000 drive-in theaters across the United States.  So this American icon, which got stated in 1934 with only a handful of locations scattered around the country, had a good run before other entertainment options, soaring land values and revenue erosion shut them down forever.

Although some families took their small children (kids were free) to the show hoping they would be asleep soon after the movie began at twilight, the crowd tended to be young people.  Many of them were on dates and the safety of the drive-in was preferred to the tawdriness of lover’s lane, which led to the popular nickname “Passion Pit.”  We all remember the fogged up windows and other telltale signs that the people in the cars were doing more than watching the “Return of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

Who can forget those cheesy ads with the dancing hot dogs, sodas and popcorn reminding us that the concession stand was open and there were only so many minutes left before the show resumed?  Or, the speakers that fit on your window and delivered lousy sound quality (ever start to drive off before putting it back on the stand)?  And, how about dollar night in the middle of the week when a carload got in for just a buck?  These were all part of the teenage years for most pre-boomers.

Another enjoyable part of those glorious years was the car hop restaurant.  Although curb-service had been around since the 1920s and drive-through restaurants came on the scene in the mid-30s, car hop operations began in the ‘40s and peaked about 10 years later.  The roller skating servers were the “show biz” part of this phenomenon. 

While there are some car hop restaurants today, the skaters are long gone.  Yet movies depicting that era suggest the fad was bigger and lasted longer than it really did.  Can you say, “American Graffiti?”  The history on both sides of the car hop period is interesting.  The precursor to today’s fast food restaurants dates back to 1921 when White Castle, a Mid-West chain, offered a limited menu featuring hamburgers.  About the same time, A&W franchised its root beer locations.  Over the years, these concepts developed into the food operations we know so well, today.  However, the term “Fast Food” was first used in 1951.  Interestingly, McDonald’s did not have a drive-through until 1975.

The facts are nice to know, but it’s the feelings from being there that count.  Next time you pass the site where a drive-in theater once stood or go to a restaurant with your grandkids, tell them about the good times our generation had back in the olden days.  That’s when a carload of your friends could go to the drive-in for a buck and a burger and shake was less than a buck, plus it was delivered to you on skates.  What fun we had.