Drive-Ins Are Nothing But Kid Stuff

When I was a kid, my family made regular trips to the drive-in over the years until I was about 10 years old every summer season when they were open. I can remember far back as being 4 years old but I know I was going to drive-ins with my parents even before then. We stopped going after my parents separated in 1979 and we moved from the DC area to Virginia Beach, VA. in 1980. The Virginia Beach area only had a few drives-ins left and they were pretty much gone within a few years after that. Sad times.

However for the years I was going to the drive-in with the family, it was happy times and an event. From May to September, we would go up almost every couple weeks. Even though the double feature would start about an hour after sundown, we would prepare for the show must earlier in the afternoon making it, like I said, an even. My mom would start making a large trash bag filled with popcorn. It would take her a couple of hours…batch after batch after batch. Around that time, my dad would start prepping the VW Bus for the show. He would remove the back seat of the bus, load the picnic table bench, 2 lawn chairs and some blankets and pillows. Of course my brother, sister and I would start hounding the our parents around 2 or 3 in the afternoon with the mantra "Can we go? Can we go? Can we go?...". They were saints. We would eventually pile into the VW bus around 6:30ish and get under way. Somewhere about a mile away, we would be make my sister climb under the bench and cover it with a blanket to save a few bucks when we made our way in.

For me, the moment we arrived is when the magic began. The anticipation when waiting in the car line at the gate was almost maddening. We could see the screen and the speaker posts just over the fence was the biggest tease. I know it had to be even more maddening for my sister hiding under the bench. I would be blabbering on "I can see the screen. Oooohhhh…there's the playground!" and etc. She would be screaming "CAN I SEE?!" and my parents would be shushing her. Good times. My father would find a great spot and pull into it backwards line the back end up with the speaker pole and pop the back hatch. He would then remove the bench and place at base of the bus and put the lawn chairs to the bench. Lastly he would lay out the blankets and pillows in the bus. During that, my mom would take us kids to the concession shack and we would load up on sodas, burgers, hot dogs or pizza. Even though the show was about 1 ½ to 2 hours away and we WERE hungry, we had NO desire to eat. The playground was calling us three with its siren song to go play. It had equipment that we never saw at any other playground AND WE HAD TO PLAY RIGHT NOW. We would power through our really rotten food (which I shamefully like) and then race to the playground and power play. It was pretty cool too, it was placed at the base of the screen. The second we heard the crackle of the speakers and the flicker of the screen come to life, we would eagerly race back to the bus and take our places.

Every one of this trips we took to the drive-in, the movies were always set up as a double feature. The first flick was geared for kids and family and the second one was for the grownups. Usually when we went, we were usually zonked out by the time the second movie started. However, there were few Rated-R movies that I got to see unbeknownst to my parents. The first one I vividly remember was BLAZING SADDLES in 1974. I was only 5 years old and for the longest time I knew that movie as the one with all the dirty words. I loved it. Another one I remember was the very last time I went to the drive-in. It was a double feature of FREAKY FRIDAY and ALIEN. I was 10 years old and didn't really give a shit about FF but I my eyes were riveted to the screen for the entire length of ALIEN. Still one of my favorite sci-fi/horror flicks today. On many of our trips to the drive-in, we saw the original STAR WARS during the summer of 1977 AND 1978. It was the first movie I ever saw more than once at a theatre or drive-in. Since ALIEN was the last movie I saw at a drive-in that ushered in a new chapter of my life and a precious past-time was long gone…or at least I thought.

After I moved to Virginia Beach, we saw a couple drive-ins there but never went to a show. In fact within a couple of years, they were all torn down or converted to flea markets. I ended up going to regular theatres instead and on my own quite a bit but that is another blog post at another time. I pretty much forgotten about them and considered them a relic of the past that I would probably never do again. Here I am now with two kids at 7 and 9 years old and they have never heard of a drive-in, let alone even seen or been to one. The wife was doing a little Facebooking sometime last week and a friend told her about the drive in they were going to…HERE IN COLORADO. When she told me about it, I quickly said "WE'VE GOT TO TAKE THE KIDS…LIKE NEXT WEEK ON MY NEXT DAY OFF." It was a knee jerk reaction but it was instantly settled. We were going to go.

After deciding to go, we told the kids and they got real excited about seeing a movie, in their minds, in a completely new way. The wife got on line and found the website for the only drive-in left in the Denver area and got the location and the titles playing. SHREK 4 and IRON MAN 2. I have already taken the kids to see IM2 at my theatre already but we have not seen SHREK 4. Overall, not a bad selection for this trip. So the day arrives for the trip there and I did what my father used to over 30 years ago for our trips then. I ripped out the middle seats of the van and loaded it with a ton of pillows and blankets…and jackets because it is Colorado that we're living in after all. We did not make any popcorn or load up with snacks because we wanted the kids to experience the real drive-in experience.

We arrived at the drive in and the very second I saw it, it felt like I was transported back to 1979. The same feelings of excitement and anticipation I used to get 30+ years ago hit me like a ton bricks. I know it sounds cliché, but it was a felling of giddiness flooding over me all at once. Everything at this drive-in was almost exactly like it was at the other drive-ins I frequented as a child. The décor, layout…everything. The place was stuck in a timewarp. AWESOME! A few disappointments did hit me however. The screen was smaller than I remember. I thought it was because I was now older but I later found out that the screen is indeed smaller than most drive-ins. They did not have a playground…bummer. The speaker posts were pretty jacked up and missing speakers but they transmit the audio to your FM radio in your vehicle from the concession shack…cool points for better sound until I realized that it sounded like shit with a horrible hiss. Despite those drawbacks, everything was perfect. The concession had the same crappy food I remember. Actually it may have been a box of frozen burgers they used from 1979. Regardless, it was bad but all so good at the same time…I loved it. They also had a few new things for sale like t-shirts, glow in the dark trinkets, drive-in models and replica drive-in speaker keychains. I also did the same thing my father used to do with our van. Pulled it in backwards, dropped the back seats into the floor, layout the blankets and pillows and took the family to the concession shack and loaded up on the oh-so-yummy-yet-shitty concession food. I also picked up a couple of fake balloon like footballs for the kids and then we headed back to the van. I popped the hatched and we chowed down. By the time the movie started, I realized that the van was parked in a dead zone for the FM broadcast and had to move but once we were in a new place, all was good with that hiss. We watch SHREK 4 and got about halfway into IRON MAN 2. The youngest was out and my wife wasn't feeling well (asthma we think). I convinced the oldest that maybe we should leave since we already saw IM2. Overall it was really fun.

I, being a theatre manager was destined for me because of my love of movies. I love the experience of going to the cinema. Perfect sound and picture with fresh snacks and a controlled environment is where it is at as far as I am concerned. However, it dawned on me that even though the picture is not properly framed with the correct aspect ratio, the sound is shit, food even worse and the weather may not cooperate but the experience of going to the drive-in is not for the movie connoisseur but for the family fun outing, socializing and overall…going to the drive-in is for the kids. Even us grown up kids like me and my wife. I foresee us heading out again this summer as well and I can feel that anticipation already.