The Word - Vol 91

Happy Days

While watching the Emmy Awards last Sunday, I was shocked to hear in the introduction to Ron Howard and Henry Winkler that the TV show Happy Days first aired on ABC, 50 years ago! 50 years ago, where did time go? 

Happy Days was set in the ’50s and ’60s and starred Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Marion Ross, and company, and the kids used to hang out at a diner. Long before Happy Days was on TV, I can remember some Happy Days of my own, but it didn’t involve a diner. In the mid 60’s diners were being replaced by drive-in restaurants. Oh no, it sounds like we’re going to take another trip down memory lane! Hang on, here we go!

Our destination of choice back in high school was the original White Spot at 67th and Granville in Vancouver. Nat Bailey opened it in a small log cabin back in 1928. And it lays claim to be the first Canadian drive-in restaurant, and the first restaurant to have “car hops” who were dressed in uniforms and would come and take your order. There are still a few locations that have carhop service in the Lower Mainland. You would park, turn your car headlights on, and the carhops would come out of the building, take your order, and then return with your food on a long tray. The tray would attach to the sill of the passenger window, stretch across, and attach to the sill of the driver’s window. They would be filled with your order of burgers, drinks, fries, salt and pepper shakers, and vinegar bottles. It was a skilled balancing act that the car hops would perform but there were times when some wise guy would lean out the car window and remove the vinegar bottle from the tray as the car hop went by, at which point the balancing act was over! The whole tray would take a dive onto the parking lot pavement. I was never that wise guy, but I knew a guy, who knew a guy. 

The 67th and Granville White Spot was also where the secret Triple-O sauce was created. On the order forms that carhops would fill out, X meant hold and O meant extra, so Triple-O meant extra of everything.

Not all drive-ins had carhop service. On the city’s west side, there was Lions Burgers on Broadway where you would park the car and go to the window and place your order, then take it back to the car. We were a family of five and as a special night out we would go to Lions for dinner. Those were the days of the 19-cent burgers. For a very special dessert treat, we’d go across the street to Peter’s Ice Cream for arguably the best ice cream cone in town!

Another favourite spot was at Twelfth and Cambie, the location of the Delmar, and in the 60’s it was the only drive-in open 24 hours a day. Nothing said delicious like a Delmar burger at 2 AM after a night of partying. 

If you were on the east side of town, you’d cruise down Kingsway for a Wally’s Burger. For 46 years Wally’s Burgers was a Vancouver landmark serving up burgers smothered in Wally’s sauce. The Kingsway location was closed in 2008, but the family-owned business relocated to 49th and Elliot in Killarney Center and there’s another location at Cates Park in North Vancouver, where the family tradition continues. Every drive-in had its own “special” sauce for the burgers. Every one was different and delicious! 

In the days long before social media and the invention of the cell phone, it wasn’t easy to find out what your friends were doing on a Friday or Saturday night. You’d start off with a phone call to their home, and you were told they went to Charlie’s house, so you’d drive to Charlie’s only to find out they were there earlier but went to Doug’s house, on to Doug’s to find out they had moved on to Greg’s house. This could go on all night! You could do that, or just to head to the White Spot on Granville Street. Sooner or later, once or twice a night your friends would end up there for a Triple-O burger and Cherry Coke, or if the funds were low, a side of fries and a lumberman’s float (a glass of water with a toothpick floating in it.) 

You had to get a back-in parking spot so you’d be able to see who would cruise through the parking lot. It really was the main clearing house for a Friday or Saturday night.

Back in those days most kids weren’t allowed to be out on school nights, but that changed when an organization popped up for us in the mid-60s, it was called Young Life. Young Life is still going. It’s an evangelical Christian organization that focuses on young people in middle school, high school, and college. We would meet with school friends in someone’s rec room, sing some songs, listen to some bible readings from the leader, and then hit the White Spot. I don’t think they got many converts from our group. It was a Wednesday night, and we saw it as a way to get out of the house on a weeknight, and what parent wouldn’t allow their kids to go to church on a Wednesday! 

These days when I feel like having a burger I’ll still go to White Spot, but it’s always one of the sit-down restaurants. But all this talk has me thinking it’s time to head back to the drive-in. I’ll throw on the headlights and have a carhop bring me a Triple-O and a cherry coke, on a big, long tray, just for old-time’s sake.

Till next week…
Wayne

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