Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Tray Liner

Last weekend we had to set our clocks ahead an hour, meaning we lost an hour. At least Krispy Kreme Doughnuts was giving away free original glazed doughnuts to everyone who showed up that day. We had our free doughnuts and I also brought home a couple of their new tray liners to add to my fast food tray liner collection.

Fast Food Tray Liners

Tonight I bring you yet another of my favorite items to collect... Fast food tray liners. You know, those pieces of paper that fast food restaurants place on your tray to keep your food from touching the tray - and to get you to stare at their advertising. Since I love fast food signage and advertising, it was just natural that I would start taking home the tray liners. I started collecting them over 20 years ago and am always happy to add a new one to the collection. I just love some of the great graphics and slogans that can be found on a good looking tray liner.
Here is something I found about tray liners on a web site that prints them: "A properly executed tray liner quietly provides more marketing punch. It re-enforces the image of freshness and quality on each tray with every order, and is a visual tie-in to your advertising and radio campaigns"
unfortunately for my blog, tray liners tend to be larger than the scanner bed on my scanner, so it means I must do two scans of each tray liner and then stitch them together. So this may be the only tray liner I display on my blog unless I can find an easier way to get them into my computer.
And just in case you think its strange that I collect tray liners... how about this The Original Condiment Packet Museum. And YES, I do have a bunch of these in my possession!

The Great A&W Root Bear

When I think of A&W, I think of the Root Bear and his trademark tuba music, in television commercials showing strange characters falling in step behind the bear down deserted country roads with the slogan, "Follow the great Root Bear to A&W."
I have always loved fast food, and A&W was the top of the fast food chain when I was a kid. Going to a Drive In A&W was always a real treat. I also remember the first sit down A&W in my area. It was about a 45 minute drive, but it was worth the drive, because as well as being able to eat in your car, this A&W had a huge dining room with a fireplace right in the middle. We used to drive the 45 minutes out of our way just to eat at the 'dine in' A&W, because it was something special. Then in the 80's as they started closing most of the drive in restaurants and converting them into dine in only restaurants, we started going out of our way to visit the remaining few drive in restaurants. The last remaining A&W drive in was in Langley, BC, and happened to be just a short drive from the Hillcrest Drive In (our last remaining drive in theater), and it was always great fun to have dinner at the A&W drive in and then take in a double or triple feature at the Hillcrest. They finally closed the last remaining A&W drive in about 8 years ago (we were there on the last day). I sure miss that cool tray they would hang on your window with all your food on it! I started collecting A&W memorabilia many years ago. It started with the mugs and then moved on to just about anything I could get my hands on. Here are a few photos of my collection. The two items I really want to add to my collection are; 1) one of the trays that hung on your car window, and 2) one of the A&W Root Bear portraits that hung in every restaurant in the 70's and 80's. Every restaurant had the same photo of the Root Bear, in an oval frame and beveled glass. As a kid I remember thinking that these pictures looked so cool and sophisticated.