From the Car Guy - Jul 11
“Drive-In Delight”
By Lance Lambert
Last evening I again experienced one of life’s simple pleasures; the local drive-in restaurant.
It was a warm summer evening and I decided to take full advantage of this quickly diminishing circumstance. Combining the setting sun’s warmth with a ride in my 1950 Studebaker Champion seemed like the perfect way to top off my day.
Stately Lambert Manor is located about two miles from the Holman Road Dick’s Drive-in. This popular burger palace is always busy, always fun and frequently the destination for collector car enthusiasts. The place looks the same as it did when many of the old cars parked in the lot were new. The first of several Dick’s drive-ins opened on January 28th, 1954 and I’m sure the various locations have been the brief home to many Studebakers over the years.
My high school years were filled with many afternoons and evenings parked at Tacoma’s Frisko Freeze drive-in. Opened in 1950 by Perry Smith, Frisko Freeze looks exactly the same as it did when my 1954 Oldsmobile leaked oil in the parking lot 45 years ago. This was the place to be seen for me and my fellow Stadium High School classmates. The Steeds Car Club, an organization of ne’er-do-wells that I still belong to, gathered there nightly to meet girls and figure out how to score some beer for the weekend. I still consume a burger from “The Freeze” a couple of times a year and the location has always been included in Stadium High School’s reunion weekends.
My favorite drive-in for the past 20 years has been the Triple X drive-in located in Issaquah. They host car shows on 25 weekends a year and there is no other place in the northwest that can compare when it comes to ‘50s & ‘60’s memorabilia. The interior is literally overflowing with items from the past, the plates are overflowing with the embarrassingly huge hamburgers and the parking lot on Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons is frequently overflowing with hot rods, customs and classics. The past few years have shown that the younger “tuner car” crowd also appreciates the XXX’s charms.
So here I am, driving the “Studey” to Dick’s and wondering what I’ll find waiting for me besides a strawberry milk shake. Much to my surprise there is a 1950 Studebaker pickup parked under the Dick’s giant neon sign. It’s not unusual to find a classic vehicle parked there but it is rare to find another Studebaker utilizing some of the well traveled asphalt real estate. Sitting in the truck’s bed and consuming some fries is a teenager named Jacob. There are two unlikely things happening; two Studebakers parked in the lot and one of them is owned by a teenager. Most teenagers are driving foreign cars that outperform old Studebakers and are cheaper. Why did Jacob choose to own a truck that is difficult to drive, expensive to maintain and not likely to appeal to his peers?
“I love old trucks and especially old Studebakers” he replied after we introduced ourselves and did the secret Studebaker owner’s handshake. He was as surprised as I was to see another Studey glowing under the neon sign and it didn’t matter to either of us that I’m old enough to be his grandfather. What mattered is that we shared the traditional American activity of stopping off at the burger joint to show off our cars, enjoy some high cholesterol bliss and admire the other cars parked nearby. On this evening we were joined by a battalion of BMWs piloted by guys about the right age to be Jacob’s big brothers.
These times are trying for all of us and we should find diversions from all of life’s challenges. My recommendation is to jump in your car, new or old, drive to the nearest drive-in and perpetuate the American tradition of biting a burger or consuming a cone, making new friends and seeing the neon splendor reflecting on antique chrome bumpers.
Do you want fries with that?
