Drive-in movie memories (us over a certain age)

[Number9Dream]

One of my memories of Summer is drive-in movies. As a youngster, going with my parents, and later, going with my girlfriend. She and I would take my '66 Ford Econoline van, and park toward the back. It might take a couple of moves to find a speaker box that worked. If the movie was good... great. If not, the back of the semi-customized van was a welcome option. The last drive-in movie I remember seeing was Jaws, the Summer it came out. Care to share drive-in movie memories?

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

1. I loved the drive in movies

During the summers that I was 9 to probably 12, I went almost every summer weekend. Either with my own family, taking along my best buddy, who lived next door, or I'd go with his family. And almost every time, we'd camp out in either of our back yards, under the stars, staying up til the wee hours scaring the bejeepers out of ourselves talking about the creepy things we'd seen in the movies. Loved it!

Later, as teen of 18-19 with my own car, a girlfriend and my big brother to buy us some beer, we did the rear row stuff. The dusk to dawn monster weekends were the best.

Thanks for provoking those memories.

[Hoyt]

2. I loved them. Had one right near me when younger. There is still one in town, but

haven't been in 10 years.

[Trailrider1951]

3. Thanks for the memories of the mid to late '50's LOL

With 4 young children, this was about the only way Mom and Dad got to see a movie. They would load us in our pajamas into the back seat of their big ass Chevrolet, after stocking it with pillows, blankets and snacks. Of course, we kids would be most interested in the two or three cartoons (Bugs Bunny, anyone?) before the main feature. I remember drifting off to sleep soon after the main movie started, and waking up the next morning in my own bed at home. Fun times!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. That's exactly what we did.

We had a station wagon and my brother and I would fight and poke each other for awhile and then sack out on that back deck after the cartoons were over.

[Archae]

6. We did that too.

When I turned 21, I got a job at the local drive-in as the projectionist.

The days after a big triple-feature, I'd help clean up the lot.

Drink cups, discarded food, candy boxes, used condoms in the back row...

[Auggie]

43. I worked in the concession stand through college

Made popcorn, pizza, cashiered, etc. I learned never to buy Drive-In food unless I saw it being made or made it myself. And what a goofy cast of characters the employees were. You could a write a film along the likes of Car Wash with that group.

Our biggest draw ever during those years was Smokey and the Bandit. Hearing the sound effects from that movie even today brings back many memories.

[femmocrat]

4. It was a popular date destination in the 1960s.

It was really a place to "make out" --- we didn't actually watch the movies.

[CanSocDem]

18. Yeh.

It became difficult to even suggest(with a straight face) that a night at the DriveIn was an actual date. The movies WERE terrible but they went on all night.

Steamy windows.........sigh.


.

[surrealAmerican]

7. The last drive-in I saw ...

... was Star Wars. It sounded horrible on that tiny speaker, but looked so incredible with the night sky behind it that we didn't mind.

[Skittles]

8. my boyfriend put his younger brother in the trunk to sneak him in

then he declined to let him out because he was miffed that his little brother had snitched on him earlier in the day.....I watched a Godzilla movie with constant thumping and yelling from the trunk until my pleading made my boyfriend relent and let him out

[RebelOne]

21. My boyfriend and I would sneak at least 3 friends in.

One would be in the trunk and 2 in the back seat covered with a blanket.

[Grammy23]

9. Living in the south...

We had to use mosquito coils in order to keep the windows down and not get carried off by skeeters. They were green coils that sat on a metal holder. You lit the coil and it slowly smoldered and stunk up the car during the evening and allegedly kept the skeeters at bay. Do they still make these?

My first drive-in experience was around 1954 when my sister was dating her future husband. She was baby sitting me and my younger sister and she brought us along on her date. I remember seeing Pic Nic and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with them.

[KMOD]

10. I'm pretty sure my first drive-in movie was

a double showing of Willard and Arnold. My older sister really wanted to see them. I was frightened, and had nightmares for a week.

My second one was Herbie the Love Bug rides again. I liked that one.

[El Supremo]

11. I almost lost my virginity at a drive-in.

My date and I (I'm male) got so drunk on vodka that we almost passed out. I still don't know how I got her home.

I don't remember the movie at the Gemini Drive In. Could have been an early Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western.

I had another experience at the Gemini while in High School, but that is for another post.

[Aristus]

12. I saw "The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean" at the Geronimo Drive-In

in Sierra Vista, Arizona back in 1974 or so.

I was about six years old.

Good memory...

[Hassin Bin Sober]

24. Ha! My first drive in memory was that movie and Blazing Saddles

All us kids could remember was "can we have some more beans? No, you've had enough! !!"

I just dvr'd Roy Bean the other day but haven't watched it yet.

The last drive in movie was Back to School. On mushrooms

[panader0]

25. OMG!

I remember the Geronimo Drive-in. I have lived outside Sierra Vista on my land
for many years. I was 24 in '74. It's been gone for several years now.
Small world Aristus. Was your dad in the army?
I just posted a picture I took today of my dad's gravestone at the old graveyard
on Ft Huachuca. There are graves that say--Wife of Apache Scout, or Infant, i888,
etc. A beautiful cemetery, in the big oaks of the Huachuca Mts.

[Aristus]

27. Yeah. My Dad was in the Army Nurse Corps and stationed at Bliss Medical Center from 1974-1976.

We lived on Luke Street on post.

My memories of that time in my life are practically idyllic.

[El Supremo]

13. When did they replace those lousy speakers with a feed to your car's stereo?

I never used my radio.

[lastlib]

14. One of my ladyfriends (a blonde) died in a drive-in theater.....

Froze to death. She had gone to see "Closed For the Winter."


. . . .


(Sorry if I shook anybody up too much with this...... )

[CanSocDem]

17. Good one!

Around here, a drive-in movie screen had been flattened by a storm. The marquee remained standing and it was only a week or two before someone had painted on it, "Gone With The Wind".



.

[sakabatou]

15. I remember going to one

Don't remember when or which movie it was though. Must've been before 1998.

[a la izquierda]

16. I was born in '77 and my town (a suburb of NYC) had a drive-in

I remember seeing Batman with Michael Keaton at the drive-in. It closed shortly thereafter to make room for a multiplex.

[Frank Cannon]

19. Dad took us almost every weekend in the summer.

Saw the Planet of the Apes movies there, The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno... all the action blockbusters of the day. Those were great times.

[astral]

20. I slept thru Bonnie n Clyde when I was 4.

I saw the beginning and was awoken by the gunfire at the end. I was still traumatized, not a good movie for a four-year-old.

I'm sure that wasnt the only drive in I was dragged to but thats the only one I remember.

I rarely go to movies cuz' I still sleep thru them.

[mithnanthy]

22. My babysitter took me to see Rear Window

The Hitchcock film..I was 8 years old, in 1954. I always liked scary movies after that.

[sharp_stick]

23. Long weekends in Calgary

meant dusk to dawn movies at the drive in. Usually 4 or 5 movies.

Keep in mind that the sun doesn't go down until after 10 in the summer and rises around 5 it limited the movies watched.

We loved them and it went on until around 1998.

[panader0]

26. I remember when my GF's hair got tangled in the window roll-up

in the back seat. The fun was over....

[Laffy Kat]

28. As a teenager I went to the drive-in a lot during dates.

I think I saw one the "Trinity" cowboy movies about five times and I still couldn't tell you what it's about. LOL. I remember Boone's Farm wine and making out to "Trinity Is My Name" at the drive-in. Such care-free, good times.

[madamesilverspurs]

29. Double feature --

Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.... We laughed our butts off, and it was the only time I'd been able to say what the movie was about after a date to a drive-in.



.

[TexasBushwhacker]

30. There are still a few around the country

There's one NW of Houston in Hockley. Newky built, 2 screens, state of the art.

[whistler162]

31. The one I remember is Goldfinger

with Sean Connery. first run or close to it. We still have two, if one reopened after renovations.

[yellowdogintexas]

32. our small college town had 3 drive in theaters

One specialized in triple features. We would pile 3 couples into my BF's Ford Falcon and head off to the movies.
One night we saw "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum", "The Wrong Box" on the same bill. We definitely remembered what we saw that night; we laughed so hard we were hurting.

What I expected everyone to remember was the dancing refreshment cartoons reminding us how many minutes until show time !!!

[melm00se]

33. just went to one

Lasr weekend and saw secret life of pets and skipped out on the second feature

[hermetic]

34. So many memories...

Late 50s - in the Rambler station wagon. Three kids in the back.

Then as a teenager, me and the girls and bottles of wine. I do remember going in once in the trunk. Amazed we didn't get caught.

Then there was this time I went to Dallas to visit family. My two boy cousins took me and a bunch of Colt 45. I have no idea what the movie was but back at the house afterwards was a night I'll never forget. It wasn't pretty and I'll never drink that crap again.

Last movie at a drive-in was Titanic. When they were floating in that dark water with dark sky all around us, that was one creepy experience.

Thank for the memory nudge.

[cloudbase]

35. There was a drive-in adjacent to the Pittsburgh airport

that ran porno films. If you happened to be sitting on the proper side of the plane, at the right time of day, on the proper active runway, you could get a quick peek prior to the takeoff roll.

[pinboy3niner]

36. Nobody mentioned the bicycle patrols?

Our drive-in had guys on bikes stationed at the back of the lot. From that vantage point they could watch the new cars come in and park. And if people started getting out of the trunk, they'd swoop down on their bikes to demand payment or kick the offenders out.

[lindysalsagal]

37. Mary's Mom took us all to an R rated movie: woke up as the panties

were coming down!!!

[OxQQme]

38. Spotty

Back in the mid 50's mom n dad took my sis and I several times each summer in Burbank.
During the pre-show the theater would shine a moving gnomish thing onto the screen.
Many movie goers had spotlights that were controllable from inside the car, like a police car has.
Dozens of spotlights 'chasing' Spotty. Dad would let me do it.
Wee.

Once a friend attempted backing into the show through the exit, with a trunk load.
He didn't know about the directional spikes. BOOM! two flat tires

[ghostsinthemachine]

39. Dropping acid and seeing

Alice in Wonderland, Disney version. About 40 of us all went in a bunch of cars, parked together and dosed. Windowpane. Hilarious. We were rolling around laughing our asses off,...... "We're painting the roses red"

[ghostsinthemachine]

40. Jaws. I must have seen that movie 50 times at the drive In

Seems like every night all summer of 74, we went to see that movie. Either paying a carload price of watching from the roadway outside.

[NanceGreggs]

41. I grew up on Long Island.

And as they say, "You know you're from Long Island if you lost your virginity at the beach or at the drive-in." And a lot of us did.

Before deciding on a drive-in movie for a date, we always checked to make sure the same movie was playing at an indoor theater, so we could tell our parents we weren't going to the drive-in - which a lot of girls' parents forbid them to do.

Many years ago, my high school friends, Janet and Steve, found me on Classmates, and decided to drive to Toronto for a visit. We started talking about their first date; they'd gone to see "Fail Safe" at the drive-in. Janet said, "Hey, you know we rented that movie a few years ago, and it was really good - we'd never actually seen it before."

When I was a kid, my mom used to take my sister and I to a local drive-in that had a mini amusement park for kids to play in between movies (always a double feature in those days). It was a big draw for parents who kept the kiddies quiet during the film by holding out the promise of playing on the rides if they were "good" while the movies were playing.

When I moved in with my first husband, we went to see a double feature at that same drive-in. I'd insisted on taking my white German Shepherd, Snow, with us because I didn't want him to be left alone at home for that many hours. My husband, very reluctantly, agreed.

When the between-movies intermission was announced, my husband said, "Look, I'm willing to go to the snack concession and get Snow a hot dog and some fries. But I will NOT take him on the rides, so don't even think about it. Besides, he'll stick out like a sore thumb - he's not even wearing pajamas like the other kids."

We also had drive-in mass on Sundays on Long Island. A priest from a local parish would say mass from a small stage set up in front of the movie screen, and you could follow the service via the speakers you used for movies. It always struck me as ironic that we were attending mass in the same place where many of us had "fallen from grace" just the night before.

[intrepidity]

42. I can still hear the recording that would play when you called to see what was showing

"This is the Cen-ti-nel-la Thee-a-ter Drive In. Tonight's showing is ..." It was a man's voice recording and he was boring as hell, flat monotone. If anyone here from So Cal remembers that drive in, I know you remember his voice.

[hibbing]

44. Only had to hop a little fence

There was one quite close to my neighborhood. We would just hop a fence and sit on a picnic table by the concession stand and hang out. It had a wonderful name now that I think about it, Starview.



Peace

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

45. My first drive-in experience: Star Wars, in 1977.

That was my first time seeing it, too.

My last was...um...Wild Wild West? I think?

[Rhythm]

46. First Drive-in flick: "Old Yeller" -- Last: "Return of the Living Dead"

The first drive-in i ever remember going to was just a few blocks from my house... my parents took me to see "Old Yeller" when i was 8 (so around 1974), and i remember crying my eyes out. I've never quite forgiven Disney for that one...

The last one i went to, i went with my girlfriend in '85 for a zombie double-feature: "Return of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead". We grabbed a couple of pizzas, mixed-up a gallon jug of a very potent gin punch, and watched both movies all the way through... (we had to, because we had to have time to sober up!)

[ghostsinthemachine]

47. The original Jason and the Argonauts

at the Westerner Drive In in Carmichael. First memory of the drive in. Scary shit that movie.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

48. Drive-ins still exist...

Not as many of them as there used to be, but some are still around. I took the kids to one nearby last year and we saw Box Trolls and Maleficent. They are much better late season (October) because then it gets dark out earlier. I can't manage to stay awake for them as late as they have to run in the summer. Maybe we will go again in October this year.

I remember going to the drive in as a kid too... but I don't remember what was playing because I fell asleep right away.

[GoCubsGo]

49. My parents took us to see "Blazing Saddles" at a drive-in.

That was the last drive-in movie I saw with them. They used to take us every so often when I was young. I remember going to a Don Knotts triple feature. I made it through "The Incredible Mr. Limpett", but fell asleep during "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken." I don't know if we stuck around for "The Reluctant Astronaut." The last movie I ever saw in one was "The Blues Brothers", when it came out in 1980. There's a twin drive-in about 15 or 20 miles from where I live now. I have never been to it, sadly.