Stranded at the Drive-in

Grease was a regular watch for Mom and I growing up. A common go-to on rainy Saturdays when Dad was out of the house to spare his ears. Not everyone is a fan, I guess—their loss.

I was enamored with the scene at the drive-in. And it wasn’t just Grease. The odd scene in The Outsiders where they went to the drive-in without a car. But there were bleachers set up. Was that really an option? Or was that just a fiction? Not the point. The point was that there was more to seeing movies than in a big theater. Half the time freezing because of the AC, the other half boiling because of how packed the room was.

There was a drive-in in the next town over where I grew up, but it had closed by the time I was of a regular movie-going age. My memory of it is as an abandoned, crumbling relic. A Google search let me know that my brain was playing tricks on me. The Starlite was still operating till the late 80s. Mom, Dad, we need to discuss why we didn’t take the ten-minute drive. Eh, for all I know, they did, and it has passed into the memory pit Bing Bong fell into.

Eventually, I realized drive-ins weren’t entirely relegated to cinematic devices and blurbs in pop culture history. To my surprise, there were several not unreasonably far from my hometown, still in operation. But what parent could: a) justify shuttling a kid forty-five minutes one way to a movie when there was a theater less than fifteen minutes away, and b) signing themselves up to watch the said movie in the likely event they weren’t interested.

I was able to sate my childhood curiosity as an adult. And these relics did not disappoint. That goes double now that we’re living in a COVID world. Really, who would have thought in 2020 date nights would resemble 1955? Sort of makes me want to get my crinoline out and find a poodle skirt—only sort of, though. I’d guess sitting through one movie with those on would be scratchy. By the second, it would probably be downright uncomfortable.

Poodle skirts aside, I think we will have to give 2020’s win column an entry. Trust me that felt as weird to write as it is to read.

I might be a little biased there. Usually, during the summer, Adam and I take advantage of our local theater’s Summer Classics series. This trek happens almost every Monday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. With theaters still shuddered, we were short yet one more summer staple. But wait, no. There is another…

When studios aren’t releasing new output, where else would you get entertainment? The classics, of course! We haven’t gone as regularly to the drive-in as we would a regular movie theater. The trips we have taken have added a bit of nostalgic pizzaz to the lackluster summer of 2020.

TVs are great-super convenient even, but there is something about watching movies on the big screen. This Je ne said quoi” is only enhanced by sitting out under the stars. And that still goes for movies you’ve already seen.

Some folks aren’t a fan of rewatching movies. While I know they exist, I can’t say I fully understand these people. I could watch a movie over and over again, without any issue. It’s visiting with an old friend. Escaping the real world for a little while.

While drive-ins haven’t had the luxury of new material, their selections from the cinematic vault have been choice cuts. Evil Dead, Gremlins, Empire Strikes Back, Jaws, Back to the Future. Obviously, Grease as made it back onto the big screen too. And a bunch of others.

It might seem a ridiculous proposition to pay 30 dollars per carload to see a pair of movies you’ve seen ten or fifteen times and own on DVD to boot. It would be very economical to just stay home and pop the corresponding shiny disc into the DVD player. I can’t argue the sense in that. I’m not, as you probably already know, always sensible.

Many of the classics they have been throwing up onto the silver screen I’ve only seen on TV. Movies were meant to be shown in all their glory on the big screen. So if these classics can captivate shrunken down for convenience, they deserve to be enjoyed in the way they were meant to be consumed.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to watch a pair of movies under the stars…