One of my great memories of an A&W (besides trying to get the attention of a particular car-hop at the Sunnyvale location her mom owned) was of the old one in Hollister, CA on one rainy morning.
Several of us motorcycle owners had met accidentally over time at the local motorcycle shop swapped stories and phone numbers and decided to go for a group ride one day. Ended up about ten of us mostly strangers heading out of town towards Hollister and Hwy 25 to head south into the rural central CA valley and wherever.
We hadn't gone far before it started getting pretty ugly (remember, we're more used to dry than wet here) and then started to drizzle just as we got into town. One of the guys knew the old A&W location and we rolled on in just as the sky opened up and just dumped on everything. A real "Pitchforks and Hammer Handles" kind of deluge. Everything but us that is, as we were high and dry and laughing it off under the old flying-wing overhang where cars could sit in the cool shade for a burger and dog. They even still had the speaker boxes you could order through still installed. If you haven't seen one, think "drive-in movie" speaker boxes on poles.
Rain lasted about 20 minutes and then the sun came out for the rest of a beautiful day for a ride.
So for us, A&W meant a great meeting place and a place for the group to stay dry.
Great memory and a great (VERY long) day riding. Even long days like that are good days.
Paul
