Luckily, I don’t have to miss drive-ins.
My wife is from a small town in the northern part of Wyoming, where they still have a very active drive-in (during the summers).
Spent many good times there.
Took my son to the drive-in here last weekend. Paid 5 bucks for us to see two movies, brought fastfood with us and talked all the way through both movies about everything.Last summer, we hung out in lawn chairs, brought an icechest of stuff. Maybe we’ll go this weekend!
I love the drive-in…getting 10 people into a pickup so that everyone pays about seventy-five cents for 2 movies, joking around, wrapped up in blankets squished together in the pickup bed…I saw gladiator at the last one, though I was half-asleep, but it was pretty cool, much better than the tiny screen at the movie theather here. One of the few perks to living in a small town.
The first drive-in I went to was in Loveland, CO, but I see it’s been closed:(
The last time I went to a drive-in, and I swear to God I am not making this up, I saw a double feature of North Shore and Masters of the Universe.
Ah…Drive-in movie memories.
You young people realize it was better before bucket seats don’t you? As you snuggled there in your own private passion pit (but first making sure your door was locked so no nobody pulled the door open at just the wrong moment) trying to watch a double feature of Ride the Wild Surf and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini through a snow storm as the sound unintellibibly crackled through the speaker.
Or as you walked to the consession stand and all of your friends tooted their horns and flashed their lights as you walked by their cars. It was manditory you stop and talk to each on your way to from the stand. Sometimes the trip for soft drinks could take 30 minutes.
You could tell how successful your evening with your date was going to be by where she suggested you park for the movie. If she suggested closer to the center, you knew there would be less passion in the car than on the screen. But if she suggested the back row, you knew you had it made. There were times we didn’t even take the speaker off the speaker stand. (side note here: when they tore down the drive in in my hometown, I went by and picked up one of the speakers and speaker stands. It now has a place of honor in my dining room.)
Remember the time you drove off and forgot to remove the speaker from your window?
Final note: When I went away to college the cheapest apartments in town faced a drive-in movie theater. To this day there are about 70 movies I have always wondered what they sounded like. We used to sit on our balcony and make up our own dialogue. Had a wonderful time doing it too.
We have a drive in…and they even show current movies!
Now if I can figure a way to get the kids to ride in the trunk… 
Well I’ll be.
That would have been the Cinderella Twin in Englewood - about 2 miles into that south Denver metro suburb.
Apparantly - it’s only 2 screens as well - although they show 4 movies at a given time - double features - that explains the additional showing later at night. Like I said - I never made it in because the lines were so crazy.
Ah, drive-ins.
I am lucky enough to have not one, but TWO drive-ins in my city, one of them being just three or four miles away. Last time I went, though, was probably 3 years ago, on my birthday. Men In Black had been released that very day, and I wanted to see it. BUT, we had also just had a baby, and didn’t have sitterage yet. I was bumming. One of my friends said “Uh, DUH. How about the drive-in? You can actually take the kid with you, and if she cries, you won’t have to leave.” So, that’s what we did. It was fun, and the kid slept.
Oh, I remember seeing The Rescuers and The Jungle Book. My dad had rigged up the truck so that there was a mattress level with the little sliding window that joined the cab and the back. My brother and I would watch the movie lying in the back and my parents in the front seat. When the second feature came on (usually the “grownup” movie, like Jaws or something) they’d say “Goodnight!” and close the window so we couldn’t hear anymore, lol. This was at the Y & W somewhere near Gary, IN. They had a great playground with even a merry-go-round and a little mini-train that chugged around it. They used to have fireworks, too. Years later when I was in high school in a completely different part of the state my orchestra teacher was talking about his first job and he said it was setting off fireworks at the Y & W drive in! I’d always had a crush on him anyway, so that made him practically my idol – HA!
I do, I do!
I grew up living next door to a drive-in theater. The giant screen was “right in our back yard”. We could sit on our back porch or patio, tune the sound in on the radio and watch every night of the summer. (I think I saw Old Yeller at least 17 times one summer!) If the night was too cold, we could sit inside and watch out the kitchen window.
I can’t even begin to recall all the movies we saw. But the most fun was when the drive-in owner’s kids (who were the same ages, roughly, as my siblings and I) were hanging out there; we all knew eachother from school and we’d run around in the dark like maniacs, spying on the high schoolers necking in their cars and pulling various pranks like kids do. Oh, man those were the days!
The Drive-in was sold before I reached my teen years, the snack bar was converted into a lovely home, and I still have a thing for drive-ins. I currently live about 3 miles from a 3-screen DI that is still operational during the summer months. I can’t wait to go there with the family this summer.
The best thing is getting there early and getting the frisbee out to kill time before the sun goes down. A cooler of ice cold beer is always nice, too. Too cool.