Now You See It, Now You Don't!

TellZall's object for March is the Drive-in Restaurant.
Before fast food restaurants offered drive-through windows, there were drive-in restaurants. At a drive-in restaurant, customers park outside in their cars. A menu and speaker is located next to each parking space, allowing customers to order their food without leaving their cars. After the food is prepared in the restaurant kitchen, a "carhop" delivers the food directly to the cars and accepts payment. Today, many people associate carhops on roller skates with drive-ins, but historically most did not wear them. Drive-in restaurants often became teenage hangouts, as many young men took their dates there.



More than one restaurant claims to have been the first drive-in restaurant in the United States. The owner of the Pig Stand, a local restaurant in Dallas, Texas, purportedly began serving his customers in their cars because he believed that they were too lazy to come inside. J.G. Kirby opened Pig Stand in 1921. A restaurant in Glendale, California, opened in 1936, also claims to be the first drive-in restaurant. Drive-in restaurants increased in popularity throughout the following decades, reaching their peak in the 1950s. Eventually, competition from fast food restaurants like McDonalds proved to be too much for many of these drive-ins.

Today, many Americans feel nostalgic about drive-in restaurants. There are still a number of original drive-ins located around the country, as well as newer restaurants that have tried to create the same atmosphere. People who own antique cars from the 1940s and 1950s sometimes organize special events at their local drive-in restaurants. Some restaurant owners host "Fifties nights".