Cruising becoming a lot pricier these days

In the 1950s, adolescents were addicted to showing off their wheels along El Camino Real. Some schools had car clubs. Free driver education was a given at a number of public high schools. It made sense.

There were tens of thousands of restless young people here and a dozen new public high schools were opened between 1950 and 1962. If they were going to drive, the teens should be taught how to do it safely. That was the prevailing viewpoint. Free driver education was seen as a societal benefit and a needed part of the total educational experience.

Weekend nights on the Peninsula in the 1950s were opportunities for those drivers to cruise The King’s Highway, all the while listening to rock and roll on their AM car radios. There were no smartphones, no cable TV, no internet.

Drive-in restaurants were the stopping points. It was real-life “American Graffiti.” Some prominent dining examples that no longer grace the landscape here: Marquard’s, King’s, Kibby’s.

The tireless waitresses were known as “carhops” because they went from vehicle to vehicle, taking orders and bringing food and drink to the customers lounging in their jalopies. Not all carhops zipped around on roller skates. But some did.

Those days are gone. Land values are simply too high in these parts. The sprawling drive-in properties were sold. They have been put to more lucrative uses. Not unlike most local bowling alleys. Only a handful remain operating here.

ALICE IN CALIFORNIALAND: In the upside-down Alice in Wonderland World of California politics, both local and state, the issue of reasonably priced housing, or, more likely, below-market properties, is often front and center. For good reasons. But the way our perplexed legislators have tended to address this condition with elusive and often contradictory solutions continues to mask an ironic situation: Taxpayers’-subsidized housing creates winners and losers, depending on the development involved and the buyers who are targeted. In the main, though, artificially lower prices for some specified purchasers typically mean higher real market-rate prices for others to make up the difference for private developers and their investors.

IT’S ALSO A QUASI-MUSEUM: There is something to be said for staying power, particularly when it comes to dining options along the Peninsula. It’s a tough business. A lengthy culinary tenure, by definition, indicates customer satisfaction. And so it is with the venerable Harry’s Hofbrau, strategically located on El Camino Real at Five Points in Redwood City. This venerable restaurant — part cafeteria, part buffet, part saloon — has been serving hungry and thirsty locals since 1954. It’s also a quasi-museum. Its selection of photos of old Redwood City is a veritable time capsule of a formative era that is no more. Kudos. Love the hot turkey platter.

A VERY SIMILAR TREND: A careful reader has checked in with a reminder that bears on an item here last week that noted the disparity between Central Coast Section (covering primarily schools in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties) public and private/parochial high schools when it comes to girls’ basketball state championships (30-1 in favor of the nonpublic entities). Girls’ volleyball is more balanced but only slightly. In that sport, the all-time state title record favors the private/parochials (35-6). Combined, the overall all-time basketball/volleyball tally is 65-7. Ouch.

WHAT WOULD WALTER DO?: Is anyone else weary of being subjected to regular TV updates on Punch, a reportedly orphan monkey who resides in a Japanese zoo? Media coverage of the apparently motherless creature, particularly on ABC, has begged the question: Would Walter Cronkite have even contemplated allocating valuable air time to this bit of animal fluff with significant parts of the world on fire? Doubtful. The apocalypse is nigh.