Sonic Drive-In Cruise at Holly Hill
Holly Hill, FloridaTuesday, October 9, 2012
Founded in 1953 as a hamburger and root beer stand in Shawnee, Oklahoma by Troy Smith, it was originally named "Top Hat Drive In". It was designed to allow friendly skating car hops to deliver food directly to customer's cars. DELIVER they did as the word "SONIC" is defined as At the speed of sound or as originally Troy said Service at the Speed of Sound! It was Troy's belief that going the extra mile would and does set the tone still today that sets SONIC apart from all other restaurants.
The show is set for every second Tuesday of the month here in Holly Hill. Complete with mascots and girls dressed up in period costumes, they take your order and quickly skate back to your car, delivering food that is delicious and as varied as the cars that came to the show. Come they did too, well over 100 cars each of the last two months, spilling out over into the Public parking lot (Thanks Publix for being such a gracious host also!). The Car cruise-in runs from 4-8pm but many cars were already there by 2:30! This, on a threatening night too (Have we had enough rain yet-it's rained at some point for like the last 47 days here in Fl!).
Carhop was coined for the girls who used to roller skate out and hop onto the early cars running boards as they came into the lot! While there are no running boards today per see, there's not a hot rodder anywhere that doesn't dig the girls running around their cars in big pleated skirts al la the 1950s all over again. Back to when Troy, the entrepreneur who started it all, said originally in 1953 "Every one of our guests was worth a mint"– each guest is provided wiith a mint as a gesture and reminder of their importance in the SONIC core values of their day to day business model.
This truly was a MINT of a show, cars of all types are welcomed and you owe it to yourself to stop by and check it all out – it ROCKED!