What do cup holders have in common with glove box trays? Philosophically speaking, the transition from glove box trays to cup holders represents an example of how our culture has changed in the last 50 years. The use of cup holders reflects how we consume beverages in our cars and trucks today, as opposed to how we consumed our meals in our vehicles during the 1950s and 1960s.
Imagine a nice summer afternoon in the early 1960s. A couple in their teens are on their first date. Robert, 17, borrowed his father’s family’s ’52 Olds 88 four-door sedan for the night. After the movie they decide to go get something to eat at the local drive-in. They park their car on the curb next to a two-tone yellow and black ’56 Chevrolet Bel-Air two-door hardtop. The young Bel-Air couple are snuggled up like kittens on a rug. Meanwhile, in front of them, in a red and white ’58 Plymouth Sport Suburban, Mom and Dad play referee trying to stop their three kids from killing each other in the backseat.
Bob turns on the headlights and a nice car drives out of the small building. She smiles and takes note of her order. Minutes later she returns with a tray laden with two foil-wrapped burgers, a basket of hot fries with ketchup, and a couple of frothy root beers. Robert rolls the driver’s window halfway up and the waiter hangs the tray on the side window. Valerie opens the glove compartment door and Robert hands her the two cold root beers to put on the tray. As they eat their food, they engage in animated conversation about the important things in their lives…the upcoming chemistry test, personal conflicts with teachers, and the big geography project due before the end of the school year. By the time the conversation turned to the senior men’s basketball team, now second in the regional standings, they had finished eating. Bob flipped the light switch one more time and within a minute the same blond jumper reappeared to pick up the tray, stopping to ask how everything was. Before they left, Robert and Valerie saw their friends Mark and Rhonda, driving around in Mark’s burgundy two-door ’48 Ford coach. They chatted before going out to walk the streets of the city center…
This scene, repeated over and over again in North America, usually on Friday or Saturday nights during that innocent and carefree era, as immortalized in the movie “American Graffiti.” Those of us who vividly remember that period in history, when we were in our teens and early twenties, will no doubt claim that it was the time of our lives. That may be correct. Although we are more apt to retain memories of the good times and banish the bad ones to the darkest corners of our brain.
The idea of drive-in restaurants did not begin in the 1950s as some believe, however, they reached their height of popularity during that decade. While it is true that in Canada, A&W established its first franchise with operators Dick Bolte and Orval Helwege in 1956 on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the original company started in Lodi California in 1919. While not the first drive-in (the first drive-in restaurant in North America opened in 1911), Roy Allen and Frank Wright opened a sidewalk stand that offered a creamy drink called A&W Root Beer. Capitalizing on the popularity of the automobile, they introduced their first “drive-through service,” inviting customers to pull off the road, park, and enjoy their delicious new beverage. As a result, sales skyrocketed and the fast food business was born.
Other franchise restaurants like “Tastee-Freeze” and “Dog ‘n Suds” were also getting on board with this new phenomenon. Mom-and-pop operations were typical of most North American towns or large cities and were popular gathering places.
The “Baby Boomers” – those born between 1946 and 1964, who form the largest single demographic segment of our total population – have had a profound influence on the marketing of everything from pre-formulated baby food, to toys like the hula hoop to muscle cars. This group was now beginning to exert their purchasing power! Fast food was fast becoming the staple diet of teenagers.
The novelty of drive-ins began to fade in the mid-1970s, and restaurants like A&W had to change their marketing strategies in the face of stiff competition from multinational fast-food chains. That meant closing supermarkets and opening new restaurants in shopping malls. This change in philosophy has generated new growth for companies like A&W. The new reality is that businesses have to go where the people are, whereas before customers were expected to come to businesses, in the case of drive-ins.
Now, instead of parking her car and waiting for service, she drives up to a menu board, orders the food she wants by speaking into a microphone, and then drives over to pick up her order at the takeout window. You leave, eating on the run.
Due to this change in consumerism, the glove compartment of newer vehicles is no longer available with beverage trays. Instead, there are cup holders in the front and back to store your hot or cold beverage while you commute to work, school, or make the first sales call of the day.
Forty years ago, glove compartment trays were barely mentioned in automobile advertising brochures. Automakers in North America were quite accepting of the fact that most of their customers ate at drive-ins and watched movies at drive-ins. This popular culture led to its popular models having drink trays in the glove compartment, just as the public demands cup holders in the cars they drive today.
When you read today’s automotive reports, you’ll see cup holders mentioned in the same prize as leather seats and climate control. In fact, the more cup holders a vehicle has, the more attractive it is to the customer.
So what happened to that old phenomenon of the late 20th century… the drive-in restaurant? Has it been doomed to oblivion, just like the finned cars of the late 1950s? The answer is both, yes and no. Although some former drive-in restaurants have been transformed into drive-in restaurants, there are still a few that hold out, primarily in the eastern US. The “Dog ‘n Suds” restaurant chain is still alive and well, with 13 outlets sale in the US One of the oldest examples of that chain is in Montague, Michigan, where the tradition has been passed on to the next generation. You can still get the same food, listen to the same rock ‘n roll music on the jukebox, and get that personalized service from the kitchen to your car. Another is “The Skyway Drive-In” located in Akron, Ohio, which has been an institution in the western part of that city since 1952. Skyway’s argument for keeping the drive-in concept is that it requires less land than having to build a restaurant for customers to dine.
As our pace of life shifts gears at an ever-increasing breakneck speed, our civilization may eventually appreciate and savor a more relaxed, friendly and easygoing pace of days gone by, where stopping for a bite to eat in your car, while stationary It may actually be a better idea than dashing down the road with a donut in one hand and a coffee in the other. Who knows, we may long enough for those supposedly less stressful, more carefree days of the glorious ’50s that some of the good things from that era return.
Will the drive-in restaurant return? Maybe. If they do, I’ll be there… “I’ll have a large root beer, one of those mongo burgers with pickles, mayonnaise and tomatoes and a large basket of specially dipped onion rings…