There’s a lot I don’t understand about that picture. I’m so old I remember window trays at the drive-in in the 1960s, and they attached differently, with the window fully open and the bumpers against the door. With the one in the picture I don’t see how you’re supposed to get your drink past the opening without spilling it. Even the cherries on the banana split would scrape off. Also, it looks like they have the hood up? Which makes the rest of the scene hard to see but the girl with the balloon animal and the car behind her are from at least 20 years later than the orange car. So maybe it’s vintage and they’re being careful about the orange paint.
Wild guess here because I don’t know anything about vintage cars or drive in trays or america in the 60s. But could it be that this tray is designed to sit on the inside of a car, on the passenger side, so that someone in the driver’s seat can use it? This would be convenient in bad weather but totally useless if you do have an extra passenger with you.
I’m not as old as you, but I remember window trays at Dog n Suds (and our local, the Mug-n-Bun) in the 90s. They did actually clip on the window, and if you had your window fully open they had you roll it up an inch or two so it could attach. I assume that wasn’t new technology at the time. They didn’t look quite like this, though; they were cantilevered on rubber pads so that the top of the tray lined up with the top of the window. By then they had moved away from glass serving dishes to Styrofoam with lids, so it wasn’t really a problem to get things into the car, height-wise.
I mean, this is almost certainly a staged display for a car show, but I’m just verifying that these trays (well, ones kind of like these) do exist and were (are?) used.
Back in the day people in US would never leave their cars. They lived like hermit crabs, working, eating and sleeping in their cars. If they had children they would move to a bigger car. The cities were simply considered too dangerous to move around without the protective shell of a vehicle. Only after WWII they invented suburbs and started moving from their cars to homes. Today it’s safer so they sometimes leave their cars and move around on foot but it’s still not very common and seen as liberal invention.
It’s a drive-in tray:
There’s a lot I don’t understand about that picture. I’m so old I remember window trays at the drive-in in the 1960s, and they attached differently, with the window fully open and the bumpers against the door. With the one in the picture I don’t see how you’re supposed to get your drink past the opening without spilling it. Even the cherries on the banana split would scrape off. Also, it looks like they have the hood up? Which makes the rest of the scene hard to see but the girl with the balloon animal and the car behind her are from at least 20 years later than the orange car. So maybe it’s vintage and they’re being careful about the orange paint.
It’s a display for a car show.
Wild guess here because I don’t know anything about vintage cars or drive in trays or america in the 60s. But could it be that this tray is designed to sit on the inside of a car, on the passenger side, so that someone in the driver’s seat can use it? This would be convenient in bad weather but totally useless if you do have an extra passenger with you.
I’m not as old as you, but I remember window trays at Dog n Suds (and our local, the Mug-n-Bun) in the 90s. They did actually clip on the window, and if you had your window fully open they had you roll it up an inch or two so it could attach. I assume that wasn’t new technology at the time. They didn’t look quite like this, though; they were cantilevered on rubber pads so that the top of the tray lined up with the top of the window. By then they had moved away from glass serving dishes to Styrofoam with lids, so it wasn’t really a problem to get things into the car, height-wise.
I mean, this is almost certainly a staged display for a car show, but I’m just verifying that these trays (well, ones kind of like these) do exist and were (are?) used.
How does that work?
Would people just park somewhere at the drive in and eat in their cars or would they just put everything inside the car and then give the tray back?
I doubt they drove home with the tray attached and the food on it?
Back in the day people in US would never leave their cars. They lived like hermit crabs, working, eating and sleeping in their cars. If they had children they would move to a bigger car. The cities were simply considered too dangerous to move around without the protective shell of a vehicle. Only after WWII they invented suburbs and started moving from their cars to homes. Today it’s safer so they sometimes leave their cars and move around on foot but it’s still not very common and seen as liberal invention.
Eat in the car