SHOOSTER’S DRIVE-IN After Herman’s father died two of his sons, Harry and Herman, took over the management of the restau- rant. The third brother, Izzy, owned a bar of his own and was not involved in the restaurant. To give you an idea of Izzy and Harry’s personalities – Izzy’s desk was always spotless and clean, Harry’s desk was a mess, a mountain of papers, any one of which Harry could retrieve instantly. I would often hang out in the restaurant waiting for Herman to close up at midnight and Izzy would keep me company until his bar closed and he would leave to pick up his money. The restaurant itself was practically a symbol of what The Fifties was all about. Cars were big and loaded with chrome; they had tail fins, wheel-covers called fender skirts, whitewalls, and fuzzy dice hang- ing from the rear-view mirror. They had V8 engines
and some had “necking knobs” on the steering wheels so the teenaged male driver could steer without taking his arm from around his girlfriend. Those knobs also helped the driver crank the big steering wheel because this was before power steering. The cars didn’t have seat belts. Nobody worried about gas mileage because gaso- line was twenty-five cents a gallon. And they all wound up parked around Shooster’s Drive-In where pretty “carhop” waitresses came out to your car to pick up and serve your order on trays they attached to the side of the car window. You could eat inside your car or in the restaurant. The restaurant attract- ed every kind of patron from young families to teen- agers to an older clientele. There w e r e ice cream eating contests. The f o o d was American comfort food and t he r e
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