Drive in theater stories....

how about coming out to the Route 61 Drive April 29 to see American Graffiti and Two Lane Blacktop?

You can try sneaking in.........

only classic cars are allowed in on Friday night (new American muscle is OK)

Saturday is the after party for Torque Fest


I remember going to see Star Wars at the drive in night after night with my dad and my best friend in the summer of '77.

Putting lawn chairs in the back of the Apache truck and my dad turning the lights on and off on the way home saying he was an X wing fighter.

ha

Good times at the drive in fer sure.

I think I saw that movie like 12 times there that year.....

and like every other drive in - it is long gone...............

 

In the mid 80's at the drive-in in Paragould Arkansas. It must have been B Horror Movie night, but that wasn't what had my attention. I was watching the funnel clouds that looked like they were right on top of the screen.

I think the name of the movie was 'Gates of Hell'. I only vaguely remember anything about that movie due to the distractions.

 

In the late 50's I lived in a trailer court next to the drive in, watched a lot of free movies. My first paying job was as an usher at the same drive in. Saw a lot of interesting things & got many free beers. Had great times in my 55 Bel Air my senior year of high school. Also worked some at the NEW drive in on the south end of town. It got blown down by a tornado in 65, then was rebuilt. Both are gone now but the memories live on.

 

Day light saving killed the drive inn theaters. The movies would not start until 10:00 pm.

Like the old Indian from Arizona said, "Only a stupid white man would cut off one foot of blanket and sew it on the other end and think he has a longer blanket".

 

Back in high school, my friend Jeff and I pick up these 2 girls while crusing....they wanted to go to the drive-in, but with buying beer , we did'nt have eought money for tickets to get in......only for one....it was decided that I would drive the car and the girls and Jeff would hide in the trunk.....We got got away with it, but when I tryed to open the trunk to let them out.......the key brought off....it took two hours to take out the back seat,,,,to get them out.......needless to say.....we did'nt get lucky that night............some things in your life time ,,,you never forget..wonder if those girls still think about us...

 

There are some great, hilarious -- AND TRUE -- drive-in stories here! I can't believe people haven't voted this thread UP. Just one star? Go figure.

 

My first car was a 55 2 Dr Post. I was considered an oddball in high school because of it. Went to the Drive-in to see American Graffiti when it came out. Then all the sudden I was cool. I guess I was just ahead of my time.

 

The rapping of pipes on a flat head sound great from
from the trunk of a 49 merc !

 

there's one still open about a half hour from where i live... it's not very lively though and the movies are rarely any good. It's kind of like movie night at a nursing home.

My dad says they used to check the trunks of cars to see if anyone was being snuck in, but there was enough room for a couple people to lie down in the space between the radiator and hood of his Bel Air.

 

A year out of high school I had a beater Austin Healey 100-6. I decided to redo the dash in solid walnut (I know...). For a few weeks while I was doing the rebuild, I had the horn cover off and the steering wheel was easily removable so I could fit and measure stuff. It made it a lot better for necking at the drive in as my girl of choice back then could sit sidways in my lap without the wheel in the way. Gary

 

There's a bit more to it than that. Urban sprawl, rising property values (Walmart), and the introduction of the VCR and video rentals also contributed. Another big reason was we (myself included) just quit going.

Been there many, many times. It's a GREAT drive-in and the owners are very cool. http://www.capridrive-in.com/

If you've never been to a drive-in, you better go soon. Digital is probably going to kill most of the few survivors

 

A bottle or two of some wine,the lucky girl and some mexican agriculture.
We got busted a few times with the trunk deal,and would have to lay low for a few months or change cars.Also went on some double dates back then, man I wish we still had some of them around....

 

Last movie i saw at a drive in was Twister (1996). Im gonna go to the Mission Tiki drive in in Montclair soon though. Ive been wanting to check that one out.

 

- A friend of mine had a 55 Buick...large by huge. The trunk got used to smuggle lots of stuff in...people usually, but sometimes a keg. He had something rigged up so that the keg was in the trunk, but there was a hose worked through the backseat for easy beverage access.

- the night before HS graduation, a few friends and I go to the drive in to see Night of the Living Dead/Dawn of the Dead. About halfway through the first movie, the valedictorian (!) says "Hey, I have to give a speech at graduation tomorrow and I haven't written it yet!" The van we were in was brand new (someone's graduation present) so there was absolutely nothing in the van (no interior either, it was a cargo special and only had front seats) After some scrounging, he came up with the cardboard insert from a graduation robe package, and a grease pencil...and wrote the speech he gave the next day while watching the movie.

Where I live now, luckily the Weirs Beach Drive In is still operating, we try to get over there at least once a season.

 

Buddy had a 1962 Lincoln Cont. in college. He loaned it to me a couple of times (I left my 65 Mustang with him) so I could take my girl to the drive-in movies. I could lay down in the back seat of the Lincoln ... but not in the Mustang.

In high school I drove my 59 Ford truck (with a 390 Caddy in it) to the drive-ins with the bed lined with bean bag chairs. All of my friends would meet up and the theater and pile in the bed.

 

1980 in a small drive in theater in Auburn, NY (still there!). I was driving a 1969 340 Dart, had a good looking girlfriend, and the movies were Hollywood Knights and Used Cars.

Just can't get much better then that.

 

my dad always told me stories of sneaking 5 guys and a keg in his chevys trunk and all the other fun they had at the cottage view in cottage grove mn. think its still there they used to do back to the 50's night on friday of back to the 50's not sure if they still do. I used to go to the valley hi drive in off 94 in mn but it was harder to get away with our nonsense but we did. lot of drinkin and partying but the cops were there everytime to put a damper on things. oh and they checked coolers and trunks. but not utility boxes on pickups. im to young to have participated in car load nights

 

Just took my 4 year old last weekend to see Rango and True Grit, He stayed awake for both of them standing in the middle of the front seat. Probably go agian this Saturday. We love the drive in

 

Things I remember about the drive-ins and things that are foggy:

I remember jokes about dancing hot dogs, on the screen and in the car.
I think I remember but I'm not sure; didn't some of the speaker stands have optional heaters so that you didn't have to start your car all the time?
I remember honking riots. If a movie had a boring spot someone would start honking until the whole place was going off.
I remember slanted parking rows, at some drive-ins, that allowed your car's nose to be up for a better view of the screen. That made a sneak-in ride in the trunk a great risk because the driver would often take you for a ride over the ridges and have you bouncing around like a brick in a clothes dryer.
I remember some drive-ins had bleachers for those hot summer nights when you didn't want to sit in the car.
I think Color TV and Air Conditioned Homes put a hurtin' on cruisin' and drive-ins. Hell, we only got 4 TV channels and a couple of fuzzy UHF channels back in the day. You could only watch Bonanza and Gun Smoke repeats in the summer. Wasn't much on the tube.

 

Used to go to the drive-in in my 55 Chevy in the mid 60's. Can't remember ever seeing a whole movie or keeping my pants on for the whole time.

 

That's great, good for you to give him a cool memory for when he is older, I bet it will be a fond one!

Did you guys take an old car?

 

Let me tell you about my trip through the drive-in one really foggy night in my brand new Peterbilt long wheelbase truck pulling a set of doubles. Oh yeah you read it right. This is, I have admit the best dirty trick I have ever heard of even if I was the victim here. One night I was hauling a load of paper supplies to a warehouse off of Valley View Dr. I think it was in Los Angeles. It was common, and still is, to get on the CB radio and ask for local help if you were in a area you were not familiar with. I could barely make out the sign for the off ramp it so damn foggy. So I called for local information and this nice fellow comes back and tells me he knew exactly where I was and how to get to where I was going. Like I said it was FOGGY. This helpful citizen tells me to go to the right to the stop sign make another right about a quarter mile down and just pull up to the guard shack and the watchman would guide me from there. Easy right ? To damn easy. I was dead tired from my drive from Bellingham Wa. I was ready to hit the sleeper. Well I pull up to this guard shack and guess what. It ain't no guard shack but is the ticket both to the local drive-in. I still don't know who had the dumbest look on there faces the young girl looking up at me in this big truck or me looking down at her in this little ticket booth. Thank goodness it was late and no one was lined up to get in because they wern't. I immediately grabbed the mike and asked Mr. Good Samartin what the hell he had done to me. This guy is laughing his head off as are a few of his buddies. Come to find out this a little game they play on unsuspecting truck drivers. Long story short is that this had happened so often that the theater operator had a route all laid out to get trucks out of his drive-in. Off course this involved removing several steel posts and cables and breaking down the trailers but other than that doable. Except for the bother and agrievation of course. The operator even new where all the warehouse were in the area. All well that ends well. The moral of this story is to be real careful what you ask for on a CB radio on a foggy night.

 

Lost my virginity in the bed of a truck at the drive in. Another time on a date in my 71 Nova with a different girl, after my move for the back seat didnt work out we decided to take off during intermission. Forgot to take the speaker out of my dvr. side window and pulled away. Blew my whole window out, much to the liking of the older kids partying in the van next to us. Pretty emberassing for a 16 year old working on my night moves. To many stories about the drive in to post here, but those two immediately come to mind. I really really miss those days.

 

When we were kids we had to wear our PJ's to the drive in and before the movie started our mom would make us go to the rest room ... it was so embarrassing, but there were always a bunch of other kids in line just like us LOL.

We had a drive in where we lived. One of our buddies older brother worked the gate. If we gave him an extra buck (between all of us) he would let us into the R rated movies.

Like everyone else going to the drive in was one of our rights of passage. Lots of back seat fun. One time two of my male friends, me and a girl I was sort of hanging out with at the time all planned to go to the movies. When we picked her up one of her friends wanted to go too. It was ok by me because her friend was someone I lusted after, course when we were teens didnt we want every gir?l haha!

Anyway I sat in the back with the two girls and my buds were up front. A little bit into the first movie my girl started kissing me and her friend said she wanted to do that too. OMG, this sort of stuff did not happen to me! It was getting into some pretty serious groping, me and two chicks, woohoo!

My buds in the front seat would keep turning around and the girls would be HEY! Stop watching us! It was fun, but no actual sex. Not sure if I could have gone that far with my buddies in the front seat anyway. I tried several times after that to get both of those girls to go to the movies with just me ... No luck, sorry it was a one time thing. *sigh*

 

The drive - in in North Dayton had a stop light just across the street from the entrance . Two of us in the thought the driver stopped THERE to buy the tickets. When he did get up to the ticket booth we thought he had parked and bailed out. LOL Everyone was laughing and we just turned around and left.

 

They show movies there????????

 

Movie!?? What movie ????

 

Hey I still take the family to the drive in. With kids it's the only way I can see new movies. If they want to get whiny and cranky at the drive in you don't bother anyone else like you would at a movie theater.

It rules, the whole family loves it. We take the minivan, park it backwards and everyone can sit in the back.

 

I grew up less than a few miles from a Drive in..."The Thunderbird Drive In." We went when we could afford it. But what's funny is that our telephone number was one digit off from the drive in. People would call all the time to see what was playing. My uncle would be drunk, answer the phone and tell them it was some sort of adult film playing. It never got old. The other great thing was that the drive in had a flea market on Sat. Now it's a bunch of houses. Miss the drive in.

 

Back in the early sixties a couple friends and I went to the Meadow Lark drive-in in his parents 57 chevy as the driver was just 16 and the other guy and I were still 15. I stay in the car and they go to the refreshment stand. I'm watching the movie and this hand comes up with you know what finger being displayed on the screen. I knew those guys had to be the culprits and shortly there after they jump in the car laughing their butts off. We laughed about that prank for along time.
Sadly, the driver mentioned above passed away last year from heart disease, life seems to go by so quickly.
I sure miss those innocent days and high school friendships.