I LOVE going to the theatre to see movies. I don't care how bad ass of a home theatre system you have it's just not the same! Going to the movies when I was a kid was a huge treat! My folks liked to go to the Drive-in theatre which in retrospect was so cool. I would kill for there to be Drive-in theatres still operating today! We would take blankets and pillows and then shove my sister on the backseat floorboard and cover her with them while we payed for the tickets at the box office" Two adults and one child" my Dad would say while my sister giggled the whole time and I would kick her to get her to shut up and stay still! My Mom would pack dinner which usually consisted of Fried Chicken, Frito's and some Shasta Cola all tossed in a cooler thrown in the back of the station wagon. Then we had a big ol' paper bag full of popcorn that we popped at the house and had grease stains all over it cause of all the butter and oil! Me and my sister would either sit in the back seat leaning on the front trying to make sense of the dialogue from the Drive-in window speaker that sounded like a tin can walkie talkie, or we would sit on the back of the station wagon tailgate window ignoring the movie and stuffing our faces with popcorn and candy! It was always a double feature,[The Apple Dumpling Gang & The Wilderness Family] the first film was usually pretty cool but the second one, it seemed always sucked! 
If you think about the whole concept of the Drive-in it's kinda warped! First of all you have to watch the movie from your car and if you're a kid you're forced to watch it with your family all packed into the Impala for 5 hours, It's worse than a road trip! Then if you were lucky enough you got to go to the snack bar to load up on greasy popcorn, pizza, hot dogs, candy and soda. The family fight/argument was inevitable too, usually over talking during the movie or non-sharing of the allotted food! My dad would bring the sixer of beer and was usually asleep after the first quarter of the second movie. My sister was so jacked up on sugar she would go into the sugar coma about the same time. That usually left me and my Mom to watch the rest of the second feature alone which was fine by me! I would chew on the unpopped kernels of popcorn and suck down my last Shasta Cherry Cola all the time lost in the b-movie glory. At the end of the night my Dad would carry my sister in the house all half asleep usually slamming her feet and head against the door frames! We were already wearing our pajamas which I hated because I usually had to go to the bathroom at the Drive-in and do the walk of shame to the snack bar in them!
Two years ago I took my kids to the Fiesta Drive-In in Carlsbad New Mexico because I wanted them to experience that lost little piece of Americana, It was great we saw the double feature and ate crappy food, they asked a million questions about the Drive-in and fell asleep during the second movie, needless to say I stayed awake! There are still a few Drive-In's left in the US and I heard they are building a new one in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is so cool! If you have the opportunity go check one out but watch the movie this time! Here is a web site with a listing of all the open Drive-In's in the US. Drive-In Theatre its alot of fun and cheap too! 
1 comment:
Sounds like fun. Too bad I don't have any of those memories. The only drive in movie I remember going to was " an American werewolf in London", and mom telling me not to watch most of it. I was probably 5.
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