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A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE AT THE A&W DRIVE-IN CIRCA 1962 with some of our 1/43 car friends

Curtis Parisi · 2021-04-11T18:13:59Z

Some of you may recall the Shaw Motors Ford Dealership I made last year. My newest project in 1/43 scale is an A&W Root Beer Drive-In. Many of us in our youth frequented one of these drive-ins or perhaps one similar. A great place to take a date or hang out with friends and our cars. A good time was had by all. My goal with this diorama is to bring back the feeling of that time with a visual story of the people and their cars. A&W began in 1919 in Lodi Ca. being founded by Roy Allen with his first root beer stand. In 1922 Allen partnered with Frank Wright which is when the name A&W was coined, A for Allen and W for Wright. In 1923 they opened their first drive-in in Sacramento. It was the first drive-in in California. By 1962 A&W had over 2000 locations and this model represents a typical A & W Drive-In at that time. It’s a Saturday evening and the teenage and young adult crowd has assembled to enjoy a root beer or a float, burgers, fries and other assorted goodies along with their friends and check out each other’s cars and share the latest gossip of who is going with who and other relationship topics. Others are talking about the newest thing they have done to their cars. There are stories of how they have just got the car together for their weekend dates. Some are talking about who is going to the drive-in movie later in the evening. It will all get sorted out in the next few hours. Here we get a peak at the inside of the A & W. You can see the six burgers being cooked on the flattop in the reflection of the stainless steel back splash. Also seen are the two fountainheads for the root beer, sink, counters and the old National Cash Register on the counter. From L to R we see a guy contemplating what to order. The girl with the ponytail is placing her order with the waitress. The man in the building is bringing a tray of frosty mugs of root beer to the window while the carhop is carrying an order to one of the cars. The guy on the stool is busy trying to see what his girl friend is reading and why she is ignoring him. The teenage couple on the bench at the side of the building are awaiting their order and talking about relationship matters and what they are going to do that evening. He wants to go to the drive-in and she isn’t sure. The sign on the roof instructs the drivers to TURN ON LIGHTS FOR SERVICE. The two girls have driven to the A & W in a ’54 Chevrolet four door sedan. They are high school wallflowers and decided to go to this local hang out and try to come out of their shells. They seem enamored with the young man who just rode up on the motorcycle. Here we see a guy stretched out on the front seat of a ’55 Chevy Bel Air. He is flirting with the carhop, not knowing that his girl friend is behind him with her arms on her hips, not taking too kindly to his flirting with another girl. He’ll pay for this later. An elevated view of the buzz around the ’32 Ford highboy roadster. A couple is admiring the engine on this car. The guy has a ’32 three window at home he is working on and is getting a few ideas from this car. The guy with the hat is coming over from his ’40 Ford pickup to check out the roadster. The young man combing his hair is the owner. He has put all the money he earns at the local Standard Station into this car. It has a hopped up flathead with aluminum 8 ½ heads, a Merc crank, mild race cam, larger valves, a two two manifold and headers. The car has a polished aluminum firewall and also sports racing slicks, a ’40 Ford dash board and steering wheel and of course a ’39 Ford transmission with Lincoln Zephyr gears. In the rear there are a pair of ’53 Pontiac taillights. He has got the attention of a young blond. The evening could be looking good for him The guy in the sport coat and his wife have come to see their old hang out that was so much a part of life in their younger days in high school and their early twenties. They have a ’56 Chevy Nomad in stock form and a nice fit for their life style now Seen here are a ’56 Buick Special with a guy and his girl friend and two of her friends in the back seat. They are a little late and will have to make the rounds again since there are no parking places up close at the drive-in at the moment. You can also see a glimpse of a beautiful ’36 Ford three-window coupe with a chopped top. Now seen is a view of the newly installed A & W sign with the frosty mug logo. A & W started using this sign in 1961. New comers this evening are a teenage couple on their Vespa, they will find parking somewhere, as a Vespa doesn’t take much space. Next we can see a ’59 Olds 98 hardtop just leaving and an outstanding chopped ’49 Mercury in Candy Apple Red. The driver of this car can see that there is no space so he’ll make another round. He is not about to leave his Mercury behind the fence in the overflow. I hope you have enjoyed our little trip down memory lane. Perhaps it has stirred up some memories not thought about...

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Curtis Parisi

(@parisi50)

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Topic starter 15/04/2021 6:29 pm

@frank If you read the last paragraph I list all the cars and their makers.

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Frank Reed

(@frank)

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15/04/2021 6:35 pm

@parisi50 Yes Curtiss I saw and appreciate that, I was trying to address the newer post by Roger and his “Sinclair scenes.”

Frank Reed
Chesapeake, VA

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Roger Kerr

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15/04/2021 7:24 pm

@frank Thanks Frank.

Vitesse 1968 Corvette conv (bronze); Franklin Mint 1968 Thunderbird (blue); Brooklin 1970 Buick GS455 conv (dark green); Autoart Lambo Aventador LP700-4 (yellow with openers);GFCC Studebaker Speedster coupe (light green and black).

Roger Kerr

Frank Reed and Frank Reed reacted

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Curtis Parisi

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Topic starter 16/04/2021 11:55 am

@rogerkerr Nice, lots of activity makes it work nicely!

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Roger Kerr

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16/04/2021 1:08 pm

@parisi50 Thank you Curtis. I put it in your thread as a show of support for your efforts as I thought the criticism you received was rather offensive.

Roger Kerr

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A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE AT THE A&W DRIVE-IN CIRCA 1962 with some of our 1/43 car friends

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