TBT…

This past weekend is responsible for today’s post… Some of us from the class of ’69 got together for dinner and conversation, and memories…

There were two A&W drive-ins in town, one on the Arkansas side, and one on the Texas side. As kids, we made many a lap between the two! Between setting up drag races, dates, harassing the guys from the ‘other’ high school, etc. we’d actually stop and get burgers, fries and the root beers!

One or two of those mugs ‘may’ have followed me home over the years… 🙂

What was YOUR favorite drive in growing up? And before you ask, yes we had Dairy Queen too, but that was ONLY for ice cream…

Comments

TBT… — 34 Comments

  1. Oh yeah, A&W was cool! We had one several blocks away from our childhood home. It was a rare occasion when we went there, but those ice cold floats with water beading on glass – good grazing !

    We now go to Stars (occasionally Sonic) and they are okay, but my childhood memories of A&W are still clearly better. Thanks for the memories.

  2. Holly’s in Post, TX is really good. I haven’t had their onion rings in way too long. The 400 mile commute is tougher now, than it used to be! Perfectly crispy buns…. mmm mmm good.

    There was a place in Lubbock, just north of the intersection of Clovis Rd and University. I think it was Tommy’s Burgers. Man oh man, wrapped in paper, grilled onions dripping out, tater tots that floated in midair. They were so light and crispy….

    Thanks man…. I’m starving for a good burger now, and the coffee isn’t even finished perking.

  3. Class of ’67 here. So Cal before it was the land of fruits and nutz. The A&W was on Hawthorne Bl which ran for miles. If memory serves, it was 3 lanes each way with a parking island in the middle that had double angled parking. Huge boulevard. Races were from light to light. Many a pink slip was traded. If you wanted to get a spot at the A on Friday night you had to get there pretty early. Friday afternoon between after school and 1730 – 1800 was spent washing/waxing the ride and then getting the date to head out to the A. Sigh……….. just got notification of the 50th reunion

  4. I liked A&W when they served root beer or a root beer float in a glass mug. The plastic mugs don’t cut it.

    • In SoCal, the original Tommy’s in the shack at Rampart and Beverly was the place to get a burger. The cooks and clerks were guys that were on parole and the line could be 500 people long back then on a weekend night. People showed up in beaters, Rolls Royce and limos. Women in evening dress stood in line next to gang bangers and off duty cops and their wives – out on a date – to get a burger, chips and a canned drink. You had to have been there to appreciate it.

  5. A&W was always the preferred drive-in, with root beer, Papa Burger, and fries. Dog & Suds was a distant second, even when they put the carhops back in roller skates.

  6. One drivin in our town of (then) 2,000. Don’t remember if it was an A&W. No memories to speak of as I was banned from the place by the owners. One of their daughters was part of the equation.

  7. Jim’s Drive In on the Austin Hwy in San Antonio circa late 1960s. A close second was Sills Snack Shack in Alamo Heights – the best Black Cow I’ve ever had.

    Sidenote: I went to work at Sills when I was 16. About a year later the place burned down. Something to do with the late night crew not properly cleaning the grease off the vent hood over the grill. Guess who worked the late shift…

  8. Class of ’58. Lone Star Drive In on west 7th Street near downtown Cow City. Packed to overflowing on weekend nights. The sound of many Douglas dual exhausts with a slight smell of burning rubber and about 10PM the street changes from a main city thoroughfare to a drag strip. Rarely saw any police for some reason.

  9. I see you are from Texarkana. I went to Texas High. I left in the middle of my jr. year to join the Army. 1969. I remember driving from the TX A&W to the ARK A&W and back again. Just cruising .

  10. My first job at 13 was working as a car hop for A&W. Never lost my love for their root beer or coney dogs. Remember my first paycheck and was asking the owner what the different deductions were. SS was for my old age was his reply and I was appalled by the allegation I would ever get that old. Well reality has set in and I now love my SS.

  11. Being an Atlanta native, it was The Varsity, across the highway from GA Tech. Today, the alumni of my high school meets there for burgers, hotdogs, fries etc. on the second Wednesday of every even month. The last of the 40’s group passed on last month, but the 50’s and 60’s are still represented. Between 50 and a 125 show up each trip.

  12. Big Spring in the early ’70s, Friday night was circle the Sonic then drive North on Gregg St to 4th, take a right and head over to the Wagon Wheel drive in, circle it. Head west on 3rd until you got to Gregg, back to the Sonic. Rinse and repeat all night (or until you needed to be home). Sounds boring in retrospect, but everybody who was anybody was doing exactly that.

    • We used to live behind the Sonic in Lubbock. We moved north of New Deal to avoid the noise of cruising the Sonic!!

      Couldn’t sleep on Friday and Saturday night due to the loud exhausts and burnouts. Couldn’t get out of the driveway either.

  13. we never had one down here. The first one I ever saw was in Sherman/Dennison, maybe that was the one you referred to

  14. I don’t recall ever eating at a drive-in growing up. Some of that had to do with living in Cleveland Ohio and summering in New Bedford Mass. (kinda hard for a drive-in to operate in those climes. Not impossible, but hard.). Some of it probably had to do with my Parents, who were Academics (but 18th Century Liberal, not 20th Century Liberal), and who liked to sit at a table, and thus have a steady surface for food so they could use one hand for a book.

    Since then, I’ve eaten far too many hasty meals in various cars; the thought doesn’t appeal anymore. But if you get to the mid-coast, you might keep an eye out for a Silver Diner; they have a chicken pot pie I have seriously considered driving two hours for.

  15. The Polar Bar in Moulton, Alabama. It was where I took my first date (I was 12 and she was 13), we went riding double on my little Appaloosa horse. I was in town for the parade and rodeo, and ran into her at the fairgrounds. (I had some money that I’d won on a bet, that I couldn’t ride my horse up the courthouse steps. Silly man, I’d ridden him in lots worse places than that!) Don’t remember much about what we had to eat, but when I took her back to her folks car, she kissed me on the cheek.

  16. All- Thanks for the comments, sounds like a few others have some good memories. 🙂

    Posted from my iPhone, sitting in the penalty box at ATL…

  17. My all-time favorite drive-in is the Ace Drive-In in Joliet, located on Rte 30 and Ingalls Ave. The food was (and still is!) first class. The only gearheads that hung out there were us older guys, as it was off “The Strip” in Joliet, so we wouldn’t get bothered by all the posers wanting to street race.

    The Dog and Suds on Rte 30 between Joliet and Plainfield was another good one, and the reason I started hanging out there was it was walking distance from the shop I was running at the time, and the food was decent.

    As far as cruising goes, tr
    “The Strip” in Joliet started on the West side at the MacDonalds, went Eastward through downtown Joliet, and then turned around at The Silver Fross on Cass St on the East side of town. The Silver Fross had decent food, and was located very close to the famous Cass St “hump” where the street went over some kind of drainage ditch/small creek. “The Hump” got famous right after the Steve McQueen movie “Bullitt” came out, and a lot of posers would try and get air going over the hump at well over the speed limit.

    The Bob’s Big Boy in Aurora was apopular place for the big time street racers from that area to hang out at, and we’d convoy up there from time-to-time to see what the big guys were running.

  18. Poor Me! No such thing as a drive in for we Class. of ’56 folks out here on BI, RI. Had to wait till I joined the USN and got stationed at Quonset point, then in my 1952 Chevy two door coupe I’d hit the A&W just outside the gate every night that I had the $$$ to imbibe! Loved that root beer and the frozen glass it came in!

  19. K-n-N rootbeer for…rootbeer stuff, and a place that used to be on Georgia St. in Amarillo that had the best cherry-limes and cheese fritters. What’s a cheese fritter? A grilled cheese sandwich, batter-dipped and deep fried. I wager I couldn’t make it through one any more, but oh, when you are 16 with the metabolism of a hummingbird…

  20. Heck yeah! Loved the Papa Burgers, big fries and that quart
    sized milk carton of Root Beer. And it was all delivered
    to your vehicle by a car-hop!

  21. In distant Knoxville, TN there was an A&W (About an hour’s drive away.), but locally it was the Blue Circle Drive-in, a little regional chain. Claim to fame were the little 10 cent burgers – really good too.

  22. As a teenager I was a grill cook at the A&W down the stretch of US24 from us.
    One day, the girl making the dogs cut her finger.
    She grabbed a bun to wrap it in.
    The boss caught her about to throw it away.
    He made a chili dog out of it.

  23. All – thank you very much for the comments! Finally got to the hotel and I’m calling it a night!

    Posted from my iPhone.

  24. We had an A&W in Chico on the North end of the Esplanade. It was the place to be.
    On prom dates, with a real handsome fellow, we went to A&W in his dad’s caddy convertible, at first I was pretty embarrassed, that was one big car. Then it became fun to ride around in.

    • We moved to Arlington, Texas from Chico and I know the Esplanade well since we lived there for 30 years and raised our three kids in that beautiful place. It’s a lot more crowded now, however. All three of our kids moved to the DFW area and found great jobs. I’m originally from Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley suburbs of L.A. and I have fond memories of Bob’s Big Boy. In Chico, it’s still Big Al’s on the Esplanade at 9th Avenue. Love their banana shakes.

  25. Can still get burgers, dogs and fries with a cold mug of root beer about 20 minutes away from where I live. Served on a window tray by carhops.

    Carlsons Drive In in Michigan City, Indiana….Really GOOD old fashioned root beer.

  26. I can remember buying 5 gal glass jugs of A&W rootbeer. Also beinging able to get a rootbeer float in the resturant and buying the mug to take home. talk about home advertising.

  27. The waitresses at our were on roller skates. Well,except in Canadian winters 🙂

  28. Just a note, if you’re interested, the Burger King in town (Moulton, Alabama) will NOT let you order from the drive-through if you’re on horseback. We had a lengthy discussion about this, and finally I decided that it just wasn’t worth the effort anymore. Rode another mile down the road to Sonic, where I could order with no problem. Of course, I have to get the mare a raspberry-lemon slushy, or she’ll pout all the way home. But Sonic will let you order from horseback, or you can ride in and tie up at one of the parking places. Gotta love redneck places, don’t you?

  29. I also graduated high school in 1969 and grew up in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Van Nuys, near L.A. Bob’s Big Boy on Van Nuys Blvd. had a drive-in. My sister worked there after graduation and “rings with a side of blue” was very popular. I loved their burgers and the Bob’s in Toluca Lake has a drive-in and Friday night is their ‘car club night.’ Flooky’s was the best for hot dogs that “snap,” smothered with fries, onions, and peppers.