I saw the original Night of the Living Dead with my mom when I was little. :0
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For us, the drive-in was just one of the movie-watching options. Nowadays, you have chain theaters, or Redbox, or satellite/cable, or Netflix, or whatever. Back then, we had the older theater, the newer theater, or the drive-in. You went to the one that had the movie you wanted to see. My memory as a kid of watching movies at the drive-in is sitting in the back seat in such a way to keep the screen framed in the windshield.
As I grew up and started driving, we went to the drive-in a fair amount. I went there with the Blonde Later Known as Grandma a fair amount, too, but I must note that we went there to watch a movie. If we wanted to make out, there were much less public places to drive to that didn't have an admission fee.
When I was in the Marines, we went fairly often to the drive-in(s) in Oceanside, CA. You've heard of rain checks, right? They had fog checks. Sometimes you'd watch a movie, and the ocean fog would roll in, and you literally couldn't see the screen from the second row. Everyone would leave and get a pass for another show. It must've been frustrating for the proprietors.
We have a drive-in where we live now. We used to take the kids there in the minivan. I didn't want to repeat the peering through the windshield experience for them, so we'd face the rear toward the screen, take one of the seats out of the van for some of us to sit on, have lawn chairs for the others, and watch it that way.
We've stopped going now. I just got to a point where I'm so spoiled with good screen resolution and good sound that the drive-in just doesn't cut it. However, for our kids and their kids, the drive-in is still on the menu of choices for their nighttime entertainment. I guess they remember the good times with us and want to continue it. The tradition lives on.
Except for an episode with childhood friend Curt, which I've already chronicled, we didn't hide people in the trunk. I remember a friend in Oceanside talking about his experience of hiding people in the trunk, and when they freed the kids, the attendant was walking up, laughing, saying, "One, two, three... okay, pay up for three! I can always tell by how low the trunk is riding!"Then once he was parked we would be let out of the trunk (it was so much per person at that time)h (in the 70s)
Guess we were lucky - we did not get caught!Except for an episode with childhood friend Curt, which I've already chronicled, we didn't hide people in the trunk. I remember a friend in Oceanside talking about his experience of hiding people in the trunk, and when they freed the kids, the attendant was walking up, laughing, saying, "One, two, three... okay, pay up for three! I can always tell by how low the trunk is riding!"
Our local has swap meets on Sat. and Sun., year round. Keeps the drive-in open!Yeah - those drive-ins in Oceanside are now a big swap meet.