Drive-In Theater - a thing of the past
My daughter has never seen a drive-in theater; what a shame. There are probably many of you younger folks reading this blog that also have never had the pleasure of going to a drive-in movie!
In their hey-day, there were over 3,000 drive-in theaters in the United States. Now, according to www.driveintheater.com, there are slightly over 500. It's too bad that the drive-in has vanished. I have many wonderful memories of sitting under the stars and watching great movies.
For those of you youngsters who don't have any idea what I am talking about, let me explain. The drive-in theater was a weekly adventure for us when we were kids. Mom & Dad would lay out blankets and pillows in the back of the family station wagon and my two sisters and I would be in our pajamas as we piled in the car.
The thing about drive-ins was that the movie couldn't start until it was dark so we usually ended up falling asleep in the back of the car. Before the movie we would play on the playground in front of the big screen and get some snacks from the concession stand.
Usually there were a couple of cartoons that came on before the feature movie and sometimes there were even two movies! You parked your car next to a pole with a speaker that you would attach to your window, and enjoy the movie from the comfort of your car. Some folks layed blankets out on the hood of their cars and watched the movie like that.
As we got older and started driving ourselves, the drive-in was a great date place. (Making out place, is more like it!) The car windows would be all steamed up and I don't think we even knew what movie we went to.
They charged by the carload, so we would pile as many people into a car as we could and sometimes even stashed a few friends in the trunk! AHHH, those were the good-ole-days!
If you have memories of a drive-in theater, or if you just want to say, "I never heard of drive-in," please leave a comment.
4 comments:
I remember those days too...
~Dee
As we got older and started driving ourselves, the drive-in was a great date place. (Making out place, is more like it!) The car windows would be all steamed up and I don't think we even knew what movie we went to.
They charged by the carload, so we would pile as many people into a car as we could and sometimes even stashed a few friends in the trunk! AHHH, those were the good-ole-days!
Where you talking about me?
I swear you were, those were the days.
There is still a drive-in theathre in Glendale Az. that's still in operation and of course every Saturday and Sunday in the mornng it is a swap meet.
We still have one on Cape Cod, in Wellfleet.
And it's packed all summer long!
Hey Mike
What great memories and in fact my wife and I have lamented the decline of the drive-in many times.
When we were kids we pretty much did what you did then when we got married and our son was old enough we used to take him and sometimes a friend to the drive-in. We'd pile into the van, stop by the store for drinks and snacks and sometimes pick up a pizza too, then we'd chow down while the movie was on. Sometimes the lad feel asleep but that was okay because he usually got his pajamas on before we left.
By the time we had our daughter there weren't any drive-ins left around here so she's never been to one.
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