National Drive-Thru Day, on Thursday, July 24, celebrates a food service trend we take for granted these days, but first gained momentum thanks to the growing car culture in 1950s.
The first drive-thru is thought to have been Red’s Giant Hamburg on Route 66 in Springfield, Missouri in 1947, according to the National Today site. In-N-Out Burger in California began offering drive-through services in 1948 in the Los Angeles area, and Jack in the Box joined the move to cater to car customers in 1951. (Jack in the Box also came up with the idea for National Drive-Thru Day, according to the National Day Calendar site.)
Drive-thru lanes really kicked into gear after McDonald’s adopted the practice in opening its first take-out window in Arizona in 1975, according to Smithsonian magazine…