Search This Blog

Friday, December 30, 2011

Remember our "fast food" Drive In? - Kenny P. Does...

Some younger people may not believe that back in the 50s we went to a Drive In restaurant where we could enjoy from the comfort of our car: a coke, a burger, some fries or just meet friends. The waitress would come to your car on roller skates and hook a tray onto your cranked down window.

It looked something like this. 



Here's a video about a place in USA that still does this.
In Willowdale, we had a Drive In on the East side of Yonge Street, and I think it was just North of Steeles, but I could not recall it's name.


One of our pals from those days explains it this way:
 Just watched the Video. Really neat. I remember the roller skates at the Willcox and the waitress would put a card under your windshield to show your order had been taken.
Windshield washers were a brand new thing at that time. The waitress name was Erma and I was good friends with her so I gave her a little spritz with the washer when she put the card under my wiper. It scared her more than getting her wet and she was not amused, not super angry but not amused. My order was a very long time coming that night and the joke was never repeated. It was called the Willcox not because of the lake but the owner's name was Bob Willcox. I'm  sure it was called the Wilcox Drive In. Later it was called the Golden Star.
 - Kenny Pittam

Well, I thought this was so important, I played around with addresses on Yonge Street using Google Maps and it turns out that 7121 Yonge St., Thornhill, Ontario is for a place called The Golden Star, just as Kenny said...


But I don't see any chicks coming out of there on roller skates. Do you? Maybe this is not in their job description any more.