The Drive-In Era

I'm the first to admit I'm getting to be an old guy, and going back to when I was a teenager is a trip of many decades. But if we did that, we'd find drive-in restaurants were popular, particularly with the younger crowd. In good old Kelowna, BC, there were several, but the most popular was the A&W. There's still an A&W restaurant in the same Capri Mall location, but it has long since become just a walk-in establishment.

In the sixties (my era), the A&W did not, I recall, offer any sit-down service. It had a long covered walkway projecting from the front of the building – cars pulled up and angle parked on either side of the canopy, facing towards the building. Over each space, conveniently positioned to be read through your windshield was a copy of the menu. What was offered: three sizes of hamburger (baby, mama, and papa), french fries, onion rings, hot dogs, and two soft drinks (root beer and orange). Once you'd decided on your order, you turned on your lights, and a young car hop in a smart A&W uniform would come right to the driver's window, take your order and collect payment. My favourite order: mama burger, onion rings and "swamp water" a tasty combination half orange and half root beer. When your order was ready, she'd bring it out on a tray, you'd lower your window about two-thirds down, and the tray would clip on to the glass. The drinks would be in a heavy chilled glass mug, and the food was served in a foil bag, which did a reasonable job of keeping it hot.

If you had a nice car or were really cool, instead of pulling up to the walkway under the canopy, you'd back into a parking stall on the other side of the driveway – this would allow you to keep tabs on who was coming and going through the drive-in. I was never cool enough or had a nice enough car to pull that off. But if I was riding with my friend John in his bright yellow '36 Ford, yeah we were good for the back row.
Back then, the A&W was on the "cruise route."
Every town had one, and Kelowna's started with a trip down the main street (Bernard Avenue), then into City Park (back then there was a loop drive through the park), then it was up Harvey Avenue (Highway 97), turn right onto Glenmore Drive (now called Gordon Drive) and through the A&W, then back along Glenmore and left onto Bernard to complete the loop. This route might be done three or four times in the course of the evening, sometimes stopping on Bernard, or in the park to talk to friends. For sure there would be a stop for burgers and brew at the A&W. Sometimes a car full of guys would park next to one full of girls. There would be chatting back and forth, and maybe even some passengers would switch cars.

If you're too young to remember the drive-in era, there's a movie that does quite a good job of depicting this phase of car culture. Check out "American Graffiti" a 1973 coming of age film directed and co-written by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips,Wolfman Jack and Suzanne Somers.
Those were the days!

Images courtesy of google!