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My husband and I used to go to the drive-in all the time when we
were dating, but now that it's so easy to rent a movie, plus the
fact that most people have a bazillion channels on their TV,
drive-in theaters have become almost extinct. The next generation
apparently thought you went to a drive-in to watch movies. On the
contrary. For us, it was more of a ... um ... social event. We never saw
much of the movie. Not long ago my husband got a little nostalgic
and "Googled" drive-in theaters to see if any still existed. He
actually found one about an hour from our town. We decided that it
would be fun to revisit our youth with the added benefit of actually
watching the movie. We would be taking our children with us, so it
would be more of a historical event this time ... or maybe cultural
...
But an event nonetheless.
We packed blankets and pillow for the kids in the unlikely event
that they would want to sleep during the second movie. Another nice
thing about drive-ins is that you get two movies for the price of
one.
On the drive there, we ran into a small rain shower, but it
looked clear in the distance, so we drove on, thinking
optimistically.
Just before we arrived, we stopped and bought some snacks
because, although the drive-ins from our youth had a snack stand, we
weren't sure about this one. My husband was certain that not having
popcorn and M&Ms would ruin the whole experience.
When we pulled in, we both breathed an ecstatic sigh. It was just
like we remembered it! ... Except there were no poles sticking out
of the ground with the speakers you were supposed to attach to your
car window. I can't tell you how many times we drove off with one of
those speakers still attached to our car. But back then, we couldn't
be counted on to even know when the movie ended, much less remember
a trivial thing like possible damage to someone else's speaker or
the bill for a broken car window when we ripped it off the pole.
Here, we found that we didn't need speakers, however. They
project the sound through your radio now. Smart. There must've been
a lot of irresponsible people going around ripping speakers off the
poles.
After we parked our minivan backward, ran each child to the
restrooms and settled the kids in with their blankets and pillows,
we brought out our lounge chairs and prepared to have a relaxing
evening. That was the plan, anyway.
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Somewhere in the middle of "Horton Hears a Who," it started pouring
rain. Before we could shove the kids into a corner and haul
ourselves into a position that would allow everyone in the minivan
to see, there was collateral damage. The popcorn got soggy, the M&Ms
were damp, and I sat on someone's juice box. When the movie and
the rain stopped -- almost simultaneously -- we assessed the damage.
The first thing I noticed was that because I had been jammed up
against a piece of metal protruding from the floor of the minivan,
my butt was now completely numb. My doctor says that I may never
regain full use of my butt again.
My husband had a rainbow stretching down one entire leg of his
pants from sliding across a handful of wet M&Ms.
My shoes were left outside next to my lounge chair, which
apparently formed the perfect conduit for collecting rainwater and
dumping it directly into my shoes.
My daughter used the bag of soggy popcorn as a pillow, and now
her hair looked like she had been the victim of a packing peanuts
explosion.
The juice box that I sat on was apparently not empty until I sat
on it. It seems that the contents had jettisoned onto my youngest
child's pajamas. Having already wet himself, he was unaware that he
had also been the recipient of a full box of juice ... minus the
box.
I used up my entire emergency supply of industrial-strength wet
wipes from Joe's Crab Shack. I keep extra ones in the car for
emergencies. This definitely qualified.
When we finally packed up and the kids settled in for a long,
hopefully sleep-filled ride home, my husband asked me if I could
drive, because he'd lost his glasses somewhere.
"Sure," I said, trying to stay optimistic.
Then we realized that the driver's side window had been fully
open to the windward side of the storm.
Geez, this drive-in experience was nothing like I remembered it.
[By LAURA SNYDER]
You can reach the writer at
lsnyder@lauraonlife.com
Or visit www.lauraonlife.com
for more columns and info about her books. |
