Dating Rituals in a Car-Centric World

My friends, we are going to look back at how much our automobiles created unique, amazing experiences for us that the next generations safely stuck in their autonomous vehicles might never have: Cruising, garage nights with buddies, and dating in our cars. In 1964, my mom was a high school senior and a carhop at the A & W Drive-In in Poplar Bluff Missouri. That’s where she met a young, fresh-out-of-the-Navy guy, who had cruised in for a hot dog and black coffee (in all honestly he was really there to check her out). To top it off, my dad was driving a white ’56 Corvette with loud pipes into this little town that rolled the sidewalks up a night… Talk about standing out. I recently found a photo of the A&W my mom worked at, taken around 1961. Drive-Ins were just the coolest way to show off how boss your ride was, while enjoying a burger and fires at the same time. What a concept, and how sad that drive up diners and theaters are such a rare site these days.

I still get angry when I think about the A & W they tore down in Paso Robles…