I begin this entry with a disclaimer. Completeness and total accuracy are pretty much thrown out the window this time. Hopefully, this will just bring back a lot of happy memories - of a few drive-in and drive-up businesses around Oneonta.

It would be safe to say that after World War II, people just wanted to get in their cars and go places. After all, the war had caused gasoline and rubber rationing, and before that, the Great Depression had made it difficult to afford much driving.

Oneonta joined the rest of the nation in this drive-in and drive-up trend after the war. Probably the most memorable place was The Del-Sego Drive-In Theater, which opened in 1947 in Oneonta's East End, where today's Price Chopper plaza is located. Home videos were the likely cause of its demise, as the last big-screen show was in 1981. The first patented drive-in movie theater had opened in 1933 in Camden, N.J.

Drive-up banking came just a few years later. At 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 8, 1952, Wilber National Bank opened a single-lane drive through teller window, in the area behind the bank in downtown Oneonta.

A full-page ad in The Oneonta Star urged readers to "Follow The Example Of Mr. Arthur J. Relyea of Oneonta." Copy in the ad reads, "Things have changed since Mr. Relyea made his first deposit at the Wilber Bank on December 15, 1894 ... We congratulate Mr. Relyea upon the occasion of his first drive-in deposit and trust you will follow his example ... by availing yourself of this revolutionary banking service."

The first drive-up teller window anywhere is hard to pinpoint. The Syracuse Herald Journal of Dec. 15, 1940, claims Merchants Bank on Warren Street was first. The Exchange National Bank of Chicago claims it was first in 1946, according to other sources.

It would be even more difficult to pinpoint when the first drive-in restaurant or ice cream stand opened around Oneonta.

Nationally, the birthplace of the drive-in, according to many historians, was one evening at Harold Fortune's drugstore in Memphis, Tenn., in 1905. A couple arrived at the crowded store. Not wanting to wait for a table, the husband decided to stand in the long line and bring the drinks back to their carriage. Fortune saw an opportunity to free up his tables and do more business, so he hired a few runners to take treats out to the horse or horseless carriages.

In 1949, the Dayton family opened The Polar Bear at 437 Main St., Oneonta, now The Phoenix Cafe'. It probably wasn't the first, but is well remembered. The old machines from The Polar Bear are still serving up ice cream at today's Pie in The Sky, on state Route 7, west of Oneonta.

On Saturday, Aug. 2, 1952, The Pink Pig opened at 4 p.m., according to an ad in The Oneonta Star. It was just east of the city line on state Route 7, where The Pine Shop is located today. It specialized in shrimp in the basket, beef barbecue, and ice cream. The Simonson Brothers owned The Oneonta Dairy at the time and made "Linda Ann" ice cream, served at The Pink Pig. The name Linda Ann happened to be that of a cousin.

Nick's Drive In opened Monday, June 8, 1953. It was once across the street from the landmark Nick's Diner. If you clipped a coupon that day in The Star's ad, you received a free ice cream cone.

Going back to the Del-Sego Drive-In, a new roadside stand opened on the Davenport Road, county Route 47, behind the theater near today's sports park. It also featured miniature golf and a driving range. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Angell of Oneonta opened this drive-up stand May 20, 1955. It served ice cream, hot dogs, hamburgers and cold drinks. It also later became the place where Oneontans tasted their first Brooks' BBQ chicken, before that family opened up a restaurant not far from there along state Route 7.

Complete? Accurate? Hardly.

Fun? I hope so. Feel free to add your favorite Oneonta area drive-ins and stories about them, if you like.

This weekend: a lakeside community near Oneonta and Milford tells us why 1907 was "A Dam Good Year."

City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.