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tosomething of a troubled start. In 1948, most customers were bewildered by the invention that in time became as standard and familiar as fast food itself. The Snyders had to show customers how to use the drive-through; they even enlisted their young sons to help.
    Astonishingly, Harry Snyder and In-N-Out have received scant recognition for coming up with what is essentially the formula for today’s drive-through system. Certainly, others have come forward to claim credit. Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s, boasted that he invented “the first modern day, drive-through window,” when he rolled out his second Wendy’s location in Columbus, Ohio—but that was in 1971, a good twenty-three years after Snyder’s invention. Even McDonald’s first drive-through window didn’t appear until 1975, when it opened its initial model in Sierra Vista, Arizona, near the Fort Huachuca military base. In 1951, Jack in the Box introduced its own intercom “food machine” in San Diego. Back in 1931, the Pig Stand had devised a kind of primitive drive-through where motorists drove in and placed their order with a young male order taker and then exited—but their system relied upon an entirely human ordering and delivery process.
    A clutch of what were called “drive-up windows” didn’t really appear on the scene with any kind of critical mass until the mid-1950s. Soon resourceful drive-in owners began deploying a host of electronic ordering devices that promised both novelty and speed. However, they were hardly streamlined or elegant, and were made with such items as vacuum tubes, bulky switches, and carbon microphones. In many cases, carhops were still used to deliver the food. One of the best-known of the time was Sonic America’s Drive-in. In 1954, the Stillwater, Oklahoma, shop introduced its own electronic ordering service, billed as “Service with the Speed of Sound!” Motorists pulled up to a row of parking positions and ordered their food through a handheld line connected to Sonic’s kitchen.
    Soon, a host of electronic ordering devices with names like Aut-O-Hop, Dine-A-Mike, and Teletray came onto the market. Despite their proliferation, they did not come into play until several years after Snyder pioneered In-N-Out Burger’s own two-way speakerphone.As Esther Snyder once proudly told the Los Angeles Times , In-N-Out was known as “the granddaddy of the drive-throughs.”
    At the very least, Snyder’s stamp on the car and fast-food cultures certainly popularized the device and served as a prototype for all other fast-food establishments. And while In-N-Out modestly bills itself as “California’s first drive-through,” in all probability it was the country’s first as well. In-N-Out’s “granddaddy” gave rise to an entire world of drive-through banks, liquor stores, pharmacies, restaurants, dry cleaners, and even drive-through wedding chapels. In fact, the drive-through became so pervasive that decades later, in the 1990s, car manufacturers began to outfit front seats with cup holders to facilitate dashboard dining. Fast-food restaurants created meals tailor-made for one-handed steering and one-handed eating free from spills and dripping. More than a half century after Harry Snyder premiered his invention, the fast-food industry spawned a host of high tech gadgets all founded on the same premise as that first two-way speakerphone. However, according to government records, Harry Snyder never took out a patent on his invention.
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    At the start of In-N-Out Burger, it was just Esther and Harry. The Snyders did everything themselves. They prepared the hamburger patties (using an ice cream scooper to mold them and then their own palms to flatten them), peeled the potatoes, sliced the onions and tomatoes, and stirred up the secret sauce (that Harry concocted and would spend years perfecting). Harry ran the gas grill;