The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for June 21, 2015

I haven’t seen carhop service since I was in high school, 47 years ago.

Sonic still has them, on roller skates no less!!

Silly pop. Boy toys are for girls.

Hey Chip, thanks for remembering Cleveland’s own Manner’s Big Boy.

I remember when the first A&W opened and also was there when one of the last closed down. It was a time in our life but winter and roller skates don’t mix. Nice to sit there with the big frosty mug and a lap full of fries.

Car hops?

If you are from Cleveland, Ohio, you will remember Manners Big Boy restaurants. I frequented the ones on broadway and on van aken blvd at warrensville center. My future wife also hung out at the shaker hts spot. Lots of fine hot rods. Mine was a studebaker Sky Hawk, 289 3 speed, bored to 301 in. 4 bbl Carter and twin traction. Our gang went to the broadway spot after every John Adams football game for Big Boy burgers and fries. Then street raced at 11 PM up broadway. I will never forget the classmates from Adams and from the Jr. high, charles w. Eliot

Sonic still has car hops.

One summer while I was in college I worked for the local Burger Chef restaurant (does anyone else remember Burger Chef, I just looked it up and the last one closed in 1996). Burger Chef actually had some innovative ideas, for instance, they were the first ones to come out with kids meals and toy prizes with the meals. But that summer when I worked at BC the prizes were all generic and prewrapped in plastic so you couldn’t see what it was until you opened it. When someone ordered a kids meal you just grabbed a toy out of the bin and tossed it in the box along with the food.

When I was in High School, the local Steak & Shake still had them. Steak & Shake is still around, but the “Car Hops” disappeared long ago.If you remember how they were Built, though, you can sometimes still ID a Parking Lot that was built specifically to make it Easier for the Car Hops to get to the cars without getting run over by distracted Idiots..Any woman who ever Did “Car Hop” more than earned her tips. I heard and saw some Amazingly ugly behavior from men who knew that they could just Drive Away before anyone could call them out for what they did.Physical Abuse. Verbal Abuse. Mental Abuse. Outright Theft.So much easier to get away with when the engine is running..