ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160069
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TED ANTHONY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Sure, nostalgia's overrated. Sure, the world was never really the way we remember it.
But memories of youth are printed in indelible ink, and it's fun to look through windows into another age - a time when American car culture was an adventure and not yet a taken-for-granted albatross around the American neck.
Such a look is offered in ``Car Hops and Curb Service: A History of American Drive-In Restaurants, 1920-1960'' (Chronicle, $17.95, paperback). Through the usual nostalgic pictures of times gone by, graphic designer Jim Heimann chronicles the age before the drive-thru window, when the car itself was the dining room.
The first one that really fit the description was the Pig Stand, a small franchise of barbecue kiosks that started on a highway outside Dallas in 1921. It marked the beginning of an archetype that flourished for four decades before evolving slowly into the cookie-cutter chain restaurants that dot today's edge cities.
These places shared thought-out architectural principles: Each was unique and designed to make drivers stop, literally, in their tracks. There were octagons, hexagons, and giant statues of fat kids. Carhops were ``cute'' and neon became boundless. The food - though standardized for its time - was purely individualistic in retrospect.
What's most interesting about books of this type is the iconography they use to summon the past. Logos and old menus, postcards and matchbooks go into the pop-culture hopper to lend as authentic a feel as possible. The words are almost secondary.
That's a small cautionary tale in itself. The message seems to be: Remember, visually, the halcyon days of drive-ins and short-order burgers, but ignore the march toward big-franchise monotony that gobbled up these quirky little joints.
To his credit, Heimann acknowledges this, albeit briefly, in his closing remarks:
``The drive-in reflected the eating preferences, the recreational habits and the architectural stylings of an important sector of 20th-century American society. Following its journey gives us insight into public tastes and social customs.''
Still, the most important question remains: If that's true, what do our formula fast-food restaurants and cookie-cutter shopping malls say about our tastes today?
And do we really want to know the answer?
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB