Memories and Drive-Ins

Drive-In movie theaters are always so inspiring. They are a piece of Americana, their soaring screens tucked away in the tiniest towns, their concession stands long and low and flat, their grassy parking spaces wide and almost always surrounded by high tress, the better to keep the non-paying customers from creeping in. They are almost always old, their screens sometimes blemished, their speaker poles sometimes damaged, but these little imperfections just make the experience more interesting.

Watching a movie at a Drive-In Theater is a unique experience. Forget the jokes about parking in the back row and breaking in your backseat instead of watching the movie (though there are often those who do just that). Consider the great things you just don't get at any other movie theater. Here in the great outdoors, the smell of the grill makes your mouth water, and the cheeseburgers and corn dogs are served up in wax paper, the grease spots competing with the yellow pools of melted cheese that have slipped out of the bun. The popcorn comes in buckets and the sodas are the perfect antidote to the humid summer air.

Spill a bit of popcorn on your way back to the car? No problem - that's why you see so many birds flittering around, hoping to find their share. By morning, Mother Nature will have made certain that popcorn is nowhere to be found. In the minutes before the movie starts, as twilight kisses the screen and the stars come out, people get to know each other. The Drive-In is not a hush-hush environment like the cool, enclosed movie theater. Here, you set up your chairs and remember your mosquito spray and bundle up in blankets when it's a bit chilly and wave hello to your neighbors in the next car over. See someone you know? Stroll over and chat for a while. There are no ushers to give you stern frowns and remind you to be quiet.

Even the movie quality itself is interesting. These are not often first-run movies -- the Drive-In theaters these days run on a shoestring, so they get the new releases a month after everyone else has had them -- so the reels have been shipped here and there, have been cut and spliced, and have a grainy feel that would be unacceptable in the big movie theater downtown. But that quality is perfect in the world of the Drive-In, where everything is laid back and casual and fun.

Some of my most poignant memories are tied to Drive-Ins. I remember my very first Drive-In movie -- E.T. at the Calvert Drive-In. I remember being in awe of the bike that flew in front of the moon. I cried when E.T. had to go home. I ate enough popcorn to make myself almost sick, bummed my Mom's soda and got upset when my baby brother started crying. So I sat outside of the car instead, and that's when the true love of Drive-Ins took hold. I was slapping mosquitoes and listening to the crackly sound coming from the speakers and gazing up at the stars when the movie got slow. Childhood heaven was in that big grassy field with dozens of people around me and the big screen keeping me entertained.

I introduced my own children to the Drive-In theater when they were very young. In fact, my son was just over one year old when I took him to see his first Star Wars movie. I relished that fact, considering the original Star Wars movies had come out when I was too young to really notice or care, and now they were seeing a resurgence in popularity. My son wasn't interested in the movie, however - he was more interested in toddling around, which became difficult as darkness descended. As he came toward me, he tripped on the blanket we were using -- and his hard little forehead collided with the bridge of my nose.

The burst of pain was astounding, unbelievable, impossible. I tried to breathe through my mouth while I blinked back tears. My son's first trip to the Drive-In ended with my broken nose...not exactly what I had envisioned, as you can imagine.

Fast forward ten years to last night, while our kids sat in their folding chairs at the Pink Cadillac and stared up at the screen, mesmerized by the movie, their hands deep in popcorn buckets, blankets over their laps, occasionally laughing out loud, saying hello to friends who walked by, and now and then looking over at us with the expression that said, "Mom and Dad, isn't this just the coolest thing ever?"

Yeah, it is. It certainly is.