Drive Inn

This summer has been great for us as a family. We've kept the kids busy doing fun things, hopefully making wonderful memories they can cherish for a lifetime. This weekend was no exception. Saturday morning we took the kids to "brunch" at this little old time café we love to frequent. We had a great time visiting and watching the kids try to get to the hot chocolate under the mounds of whipped cream. We took them swimming at my Mom and Jess’ house. It was so nice and relaxing. Ethan and Sophia are turning into little fish!

Last week Ronnie and one of his friends took the top off his blazer and we did what we love to do with the top off...go to the drive inn. We took the kids to see Wall-E. It was a cute show, I'm not sure they are old enough to really get the underlying meaning, but I got to hear my favorite sound, the kids’ laughter.

There is something very nostalgic about drive-inn movies. They take you back to a simpler time. Of course there have been some changes; the radio in your car has replaced the cumbersome speaker box that never quite sounded right anyway. The playground is gone, replaced with picnic tables that no one ever seems to use. It may be because we’re always at the kid shows, but it seems to be more of a family oriented place, rather then some place an eager young man would take a date.

Unfortunately because of where we live, the local drive inn theater is only open for a few months of the year, and we try to take full advantage of it while it is. I enjoy watching a movie in the fresh open air on a warm summer night. Where we decide what drinks and treats are available to our children. Where our children wear their pajamas and take blankets and pillows to make beds in the back of the truck, and are free to fall asleep if they so choose. There have been several local areas that show movies in the park on occasion, and while I enjoy those outings as well, I prefer the drive inn. It’s much easier to move a sleeping child from the back of a truck to their seat without waking them, then it is to walk in a crowd, across the park, rummaging through your pockets for keys all while hoping your cradling arms are comforting enough that your wee one sleeps through it all.

Don’t even get me started on the difference between the drive inn and the local megaplex, where you try to run pass the concession stand without letting your child get a glimpse of all the sweets available to them, if only they wear you down enough, where you’re fighting the stranger next to you for the arm rest, hoping that someone taller then you doesn’t choose the seat right in front of you or more importantly the seat right in front of your child, or patiently waiting for the parent in the row behind you to stop their child from kicking the back of your chair.

Growing up there were several drive in theaters in our area, now I only know of one, and I’m frightened one day there will be none. Some are so into the glam, glitter and what they believe is convenience of the indoor theater, they miss the diamond in the rough, they don’t know the joy of watching a movie under the stars on a warm summer night. What a shame it would be to lose that. Please support your local drive in theaters, they are a dying breed and deserve to be saved.

I only have one suggestion for the drive inn theater management. I know its outdoors, but I’d appreciate a non-smoking section for those of us that choose not to smoke.