A Short History of Eating in the Car

It was very cold and drench as we made our way out of Corvallis on this old bridge over the Wilamette River, after arming ourselves with a bag of pastries from the French bakery, Le Patissier. A lunch of almond cream filled croissant for me and a cranberry cream filled delicacy for OilMan might seem a strange choice, but it beats roadside fast food offerings along the interstate, and we needed little excuse to indulge one more time.

Driving down the I5, idly looking for photo opportunities in the near rain/fog, I was struck by how many people were eating in their cars as they drove along. This would NEVER happen in Europe where people are so horrified at the thought, that long after cup holders and other dining "amenities" started appearing in American cars, there was no hint of such a thing in the German cars that we drove at the time.

There is easy access to fast food along any interstate in the US. Many franchises even offer a drive thru option so that you can pick up your unhealthy food without ever getting out of the car. The Auto Grills along the Autostrada in Italy bear an initial resemblance to their American counterparts with shelves of packaged food,and snacks, , but further inspection reveals delicious, hot panini, fresh fruit, hot meals, kept hot under infrared lamps, true, but palatable looking for all that and tables to eat at. There was even, to our amazement, a full bar where the Italian truckers were lined up knocking back a couple of lmoncellos before hitting the road again.

We stopped at a highway rest stop to stretch our legs, use the facilities and eat our pastries at a picnic table. Alas we wound up eating, you guessed it, in the car, because the picnic tables were too wet and cold to properly savor our odd lunch.

The skies eventually began to clear as we left the Wilamette Valley with its tidy farms, red barns and blazing fall foliage. As we were about to head up the first of several passes through timber covered hills , I saw a now very obsolete precursor to the fast food/eat in the car model of today. Rather grubby,with a sagging roof and peeling paint, it was nonetheless filled with parked cars and people eating their meals from trays hooked to the outside of their rolled down windows. I imagine they ordered their meals from a waitress"carhop". Perhaps they even wore roller skates to expedite service as some carhops did in days of yore.

Back in the mists of time, OilMan and I used to go to Bob's Big Boy drive-in in Pasadena, popular as a stooping place for the high school set before drag racing down Colorado Avenue. Since OilMan was a college man by then, we limited ourselves to hamburgers and Silver Goblet sundaes from a tray hooked to the window of his '57 Chevy sedan.

It is not surprising that, MacDonalds restaurants took off in Southern California, the freeway capital of the world....