posted on August 23, 2001 12:21:02 AM new
My family and I went the drive-in this past weekend, it's in a small town about 20 minutes away. I'm pretty sure it's the only one left in Central Illinois. We go a few times every summer and we love it!
It's cheaper than the theatres, we don't have to pay a babysitter and we bring our own drinks (wine coolers & beer for me and hubby) and snacks. No more tinny speakers, nowadays you tune in to a FM station broadcast from the refreshment/projector booth - if you've got a good sound system in your car you're all set. All the kids play hide&seek, tag, frisbee and football until dusk AND in the years we've been going - I've yet to see a fight or even an argument. There's even an intermission with hokey original 50's refreshment ads (dancing hot dogs and such)!
Do you have a warm and fuzzy feeling yet? As corny as it sounds, it makes me feel wonderful and I love it every time we go! Anyone else have any drive-in theatres in their neck of the woods?
posted on August 23, 2001 12:40:22 AM new
My wife and I have plans to go to the drive in soon. There is a drive in near my parents that re-open after being closed for 20 years. There was a big article it in the paper, it is doing a booming business. I think it would be fun to put princess in the back seat and let her sleep (hopefully), and I can watch a movie and dream about simplier times.
posted on August 23, 2001 12:43:24 AM new
We have a few left here in my part of Southern California. Most of the ones left have 3 screens. One of the few places the double feature lives on.
I went to the drive-ins a lot when I was a kid. There was one called the Edison (Bakersfield, CA) that frequently had horror film triple features. The first film would be the best quality, the second OK, and the third really schlocky. I have a memory of one (can't remember title) third feature about two medical students supporting themselves through med school by running a cafe. But they couldn't afford to buy meat for their cafe, so they went out & murdered aptly named coeds so they could serve things like "Leg of Lamb." Freezer filled with body parts. Scene with a hand & arm being put through a hand-cranked meat grinder of the type my mother still had in the kitchen drawer.
Loved that theatre. Great films. Bad films. Lots of fun. You could see things there that never appeared anywhere else ever again. And I really would like to see "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet & I'm Feelin' So Sad" again to see if it is as funny as I thought it was then...
posted on August 23, 2001 03:14:18 AM new
We've only got one left in this part of the world and it only opens in the summer.
Did you say you saw movies at yours? I can't ever seeing a movie when we used to go to them!
Bob, Downunder but never down.
posted on August 23, 2001 04:27:38 AM new
Just out of curiosity, how many beers and wine coolers do you and your husband drink before you drive the 20 minutes back home?
[ edited by monkeysuit on Aug 23, 2001 04:28 AM ]
posted on August 23, 2001 06:07:14 AM new
We live about twenty minutes from our local drive-in - the last one in Western North Carolina. The owners have announced that this may be their last year open; they're ready to retire. I don't know what they plan to do with the theatre -- sell it, tear it down, turn it into a flea market (as so many I've seen have done over the years).
They play double features (sometimes ones that make no real sense - but our family enjoyed the Shreck and Tomb Raider double very much (seeing Rimmer play the butler was a hoot even forgetting the buxom Ms. Jolie). The field in front of the screen resembles nothing so much as a busy park before the film begins ... frisbee, bubbles, tag football, and groups of giggling kids are the norm. Once some fool decided to try and find another place to park just as the film began and took off across this field without his lights on -- scaring the heck out of the parents of the kids who were settling in on the field to watch the film.
We'll miss our threatre when it goes; its about the only place we can afford to take the entire family for a movie experience.
posted on August 23, 2001 06:18:52 AM new
monkeysuit - When I do drink something, I drink one wine cooler over a 3 hour period AND I always drive home. We also usually alot of junk/snacks while we're there. I love my children more than anything, am not irresponsible or an idiot.
posted on August 24, 2001 12:37:04 PM new
Yes. I am serious about my movies. Have never seen the attraction for "making out" at the movies, drive-in or otherwise. But then, I have an old-fashioned quirk: for me petting, making-out, groping, etc. etc. are things to be done in private & never in a public area.
posted on August 25, 2001 08:24:17 AM new
We always park in the front row, so the kids can play. All the teenagers/young adults park in the back....
Every once in a while lights from a car in the back with flash off and on a couple times. I just learned this last week - this is a sign that someone just got "lucky"! Usually when I notice this flashing, I'm wiping off sticky fingers, settling an argument or trying to watch the movie...
SIGH
posted on August 25, 2001 02:06:45 PM new
Good thread, good memories!
I needed this. Both children left today. One for his senior year at college
and the other for her first non-college apartment. Just got her masters and will be
teaching Special Ed kids.
I came to AW to get cheered up, and a couple threads are doing just that.
I remember going to the drive-ins in the Mid-western winters. Usually either the speaker or the heater wouldn't work! But, what fun to try and keep warm! We sometimes would have to start the car to get the ice off the windshield.
We would sometimes stay for the late shows, almost always horror flicks, that would keep you up all night.
Wish I had some of those drive-in coming attraction bills now. Already checked out all my scrapbooks. Darn.
posted on August 25, 2001 04:07:44 PM new
We have one in Stanford Kentucky which is also a Flea Market on the week-ends where my husband and I set up.It was destroyed by a tornado and the money that rebuilt it came from the showing of the movie "Twister" which produced record crowds.
