Food Tray - purchased in 1989
(This post written by Kathy)
Contents of tray, all 'fake', of course! Hamburger, hot dog, French fries, ice cream soda in glass, and soda in tall metal container. The 'soft ice cream cone' is in its own holder on the window. The ice cream soda is a wax candle, that somehow is not affected by the heat. The metal container has 'whipped cream' and a cherry. (More photos to come)
We found the food tray in 1989 at a garage sale, and it's amazing to realize how many years have gone by since then (over 20 years). This was at a time when putting a tray on your car for display at a car show was not at all common. In fact, it was quite a while before we saw another car with a tray displayed. They are much more common to see now.
First of all, very few authentic trays are available on the market.
We were lucky to find one which came from a local restaurant that had discontinued its car-hop service several years before.
Even though Ron was enthusiastic about buying the tray, I didn't think it was his smartest idea. Of course, it turned out to be a great idea, and it always attracts a lot of attention.
It always brings lots of smiles on the faces of middle-aged folks who remembered fondly their teenage years (or younger) when they and their parents went to the local 'car hop' places! And even though Sonic restaurants are in the area these days, many youngsters still are not familiar with the history of car hop service.
Parents and grandparents point at the tray and explain to their children or grandchildren how 'car-hop gals' brought food to your car in the parking lot, so you could eat in your car and listen to your radio - especially rock 'n roll music! Different places had different ways of ordering food. In most, the car hop came to your car to take your order, but in some, they had an 'intercom' system where the food was ordered, and then brought to your car by a 'car-hop' gal or guy.
There is a still-popular family-owned curbside service place in our area (since 1947). In fact, you can only order food from your car - it is not a sit-down restaurant - strictly car service. And it's open year-round!
The gals (still gals, not guys) come to your car and these days use an electronic ordering pad, which gets the order to the kitchen instantly.
Of course, those 'curb service' places were also great hangouts for teenagers who would cruise around and go from one place to the next, searching for their friends or meeting new kids, and checking out all the cool cars and hot rods. - and eat more food!
Certainly the movie 'American Graffiti' immortalized that 'ritual' for all time! The movie, which was released in summer 1973,
is now 'nostalgic' in itself.
There is a great website/blog which has all kinds of info
about the making of the movie and what happened to all the cars. http://kipsamericangraffiti.blogspot.com/
Filling the tray
At the cruises in 1989 we had very few items on the 'new' tray - possibly only some cans of pop. Then we found the wax ice cream sundae in a real glass holder (looks just like one served at the 'soda fountains') that we purchased at the mall in a 'Wicks n Sticks' store. Even though the 'candle/sundae' is made of wax, it has never melted in all those years!
Then around Christmas (possibly 1990), I was in a toy store and found a box for kids from Burger King, which advertised their popular food products. It had a great-looking 'rubberized' hamburger, complete with separate pickles, onion, lettuce and tomato, plus some great-looking fake french fries! I gave the gift to Ron as a surprise, and he acted like a 10-year-old when he opened it :). He couldn't wait for the car cruises that year!
It's amazing how many kids are fascinated with the tray and especially the 'food' and some even think the food is real. Somewhere along the line we've lost a few of the 'French fries'. (I'm assuming they were thrown away when it was discovered they weren't real!)
A few years later, we found some fake hot dogs - in the buns - at a pet store!
In recent years we added a metal 'milk shake' container, that was put together by a clever friend of my brother's. It looks like a strawberry shake, with fake whipped cream and a cherry on top.
When going to car cruises, especially the large ones, it always helps when you can draw attention to your car with items like the food tray and the drive-in speaker!
