Drive in theater stories....

I am 35 so the only memory I have in a drive in is with my parents when I was like 5 years old. I see all these old movies with people sneaking in the trunk, crazy kids drinking under age, steamy window...etc They make it look like Spring Break in Datona or something.

I wonder if it was really that amazing or if that is all made up for the movies.

 

I couldn't name one movie that I saw at a drive in when I was a teen but I went to a whole bunch of them!

Where I live now has one. I hope they will show cars II there when it comes out. Just seems right...

 

Things got pretty loose at the drive ins in my area of oregon when I was in high school. They usually had a cop that walked around shinning his light in the windows and would harrass you if he felt like it.

Once we took a school bus to carload night. They weren't going to let us in and called the cops when we refused to get out of the lane. The cops said that they had to let us in. The next week there was a sign that said no bus loads.

I yook a girl to the Drive in on the FFA tractor once, I wasn't old enough to drive a car legally and we had a date so the Ag teacher loaned me the tractor. We had a great time believe it or not.

We snuck in with a bunch of people in a '63 catalina once also. We had one kid under a piece of carpet in the back seat between the trunk and the backseat trick, I think we ended up with 9 kids in the car. Paid for 2.

 

A tractor?

 

Several friends/co-workers/knuckleheads went to the drive-in in a beater '53? Pontiac. The car ran out of gas in the drive-in. They pushed the car into an open parking/viewing spot, walked to nearby gas station, and returned with a mostly filled 5 gallon can of gas. The can didn't have a filler spout, so the gas was poured from the short spout of the can, through the open fuel door, and as accurately as possible into the filler opening. A combination of the fill method and darkness were causing a lot of fuel to be spilled on the car and on the ground. So.... one of the guys decided to use his lighter to put some light on things. That ignited all the spilled gas, then when the can was dropped things got worse. People nearby moved their cars. Waiting for the fire department they kicked dirt and did what they could, but at one point they had a pretty decent fire going. The fire department arrived quickly and handled the situation. People in the drive-in were unhappy about the fire, and about the disruption caused by the presence of the fire truck. The tire next to the gas filler was flattened by the fire, but they installed the spare and continued to drive the scorched car for a while.

 

I'm not sure what's funnier...the fire story or taking your date to the drive-in on a tractor.

 

We had one about five miles outside of my hometown and I went there a lot in the 70's. I remember drinking a lot of beer and watching what seemed to be a lot of kung fu movies and bigfoot movies and some movies about bigfoots who knew kung fu. There may have been more than beer involved thinking about it now. Good times.

Oh yeah, and forgetting to return the speaker to its stand and scratching the hell out of the side of the car.

 

In high school, we went to the drive-in almost every weekend. Just like a previous poster stated, I saw a lot of movies and couldn't name but a couple of them. The drive-in was very good to me. It was a lot of fun. I got laid...a lot.

 

"I took a girl to the Drive in on the FFA tractor once.."

WOW - if there's was ever an award for "Red Neck of the Month" this has to be at the top of the list - well done!!

 

I-44 drive in used to play porn after midnight. Right next to the freeway!

 

there used to be 4 on Cape cod now there is still 1 left at the wellfleet drive-in they show movies all the time and have a flea market sat. and sun. all summer long very cool

 

Shane, c'mon up this way dude...

theres the skyway in sister bay
theres the moonlight in shawano
and i heard theres one in wausau called the sky-vue

 

No way

 

years ago when my son was young he asked me what is a drive inn...I told him thats where old people used to go to have fun!

 

Drove the '55 in my avatar to the drive in to watch American Graffiti. When the lights came on I was leaving, people were clapping and cheering.

 

Learned lots of things at the Beacon Drive-in, near Bristol TN and the Moonlight near Kinsgport.

Had a 64 F-85, 330, with extra heavy leaf springs. One thing I learned was to oil the hell out of the underside of the suspension on the car before picking up my girfriend. Otherwise it squeaked bad.

 

ROFL

 

When I was a young kid back in the day in Southern Oregon.....we had I think 4 Drive ins from one end of town to the other. Saw many good movies back then. Then when i was older the movie didn't matter. back then we'd see a movie, have fun with our girl and drag race. Man I miss those days. Like my kids ask whats a Drive in? Their kids will ask about the phone that used to be plugged into the wall.

Mike

 

Took the wife to an adult drive-in movie shortly after getting married. She was married in a white gown and didn't have to lie about it. I was in black which was appropriate too.

She was acting all nervous and I tried to calm her by saying, it's OK now, we're married. She said "I know, but what if some friends of ours see us here?" To which I replied, that's only going to happen if they are here too................

Took a bone stock 41 Chevy sedan to the drive-in and had to move to the back row. All I heard was, "HEY ! DOWN IN FRONT!"

 

There was one in my area back in the day that showed "Adult" movies
(I think before we called them X-Rated)

The traffic on the highway could see the action that was being shown on the screen ! Which by today's standards was not that bad but back then WOW!!!

 

I used to sneak into them once in a while (I'd wait until they started showing stuff, turn off my headlights & drive in the exit..real smart) & one time I tried it at a drive-in near Atlantic City that I was never at. (I lived there in the summer of '67.) Anyway, I was with this new chick & she was really impressed until I nearly drove into the bay. That would've made a helluva story the next day after we were fished out.

 

Went to a ton of them...sneaking people in via the trunk, etc.

First one I remember was my folks took me to see Shane with Alan Ladd..must have been 1950-51

In the early 50's stores like Western Auto would market TV sets by putting them in a showroom window at night. People would stand on the sidewalk and watch tv..that's what made my Dad buy one...Friday Night Fights..sponsored by Gillette.

 

intoxication & fornication was the norm - every weekend!!

 

Talk about bringing back memories.

When we were kids in the '50s we didn't have a TV so the drive inn movie was a big deal. We would wear our pajamas and before it was over we were asleep in the back seat.

In high school Friday night was date night and a lot of us ended up at the drive inn. They had bleachers set up in front of the projection booth and all of the usual suspects gathered there unless we had a date.

Dollar a car load night was always a trip. My friend Oscar had a '47 International pick up that would usually hold about twenty kids. Most guys with pick ups would park backwards toward the screen and set up folding lounge chairs in the bed along with coolers full of snacks and drinks.

Later in the Navy the drive inn was great for dates. Pick up a pint of
Old Crow for her and a six pack of Bud for me and it was a lot of fun for the little bit of money invested.

I think the last drive inn closed here in Houston about twenty years ago.

 

In my area of Suffolk County Long Island was the Smithtown All Weather Drive In and my car in HS was a 1951 Mercury 2 door with a 390 Caddy. The Merc was decked and had an electric trunk release with the switch under the dash.

We were able to get at least 3 if not 4 people in the trunk and just drive in, pick a spot and wait a bit. All the while we are having conversations back & forth through the rear seat and when the time seemed right I would hit the switch and all would pile out.

I never was an SOB and left people in the trunk to be a wise ass. That was not necessarily due to my compassion but instead due to the quart bottles of either Miller or Colt .45 also being in the trunk with the freebies.

 

first flick i can remember seeing at a drive in was the man with the golden gun. it was the second feature, cant remember the first feature. remember that one cause i had to watch it from the back seat, looking out the windshield between the front seats in pops brang new 74 Fury III 2 door HT.

"the second feature is not for children" so we had to "lay down and go to sleep" after the kiddy show was over. lol

 

We went as kids with our parents and friends parents to the Rainbow Drive-in on Rainbow drive in Gadsden Alabama and the Rebel Drive-in over by Republic steel also in Gadsden. I remember watching James bond there (the Rainbow) and when they threw the woman out the hotel window in Diamonds are Forever my little sister jumps up from the back and hollers "Boobies".
As a teenager we went to the Lithia Drive-in in Lithia Springs Georgia, I lost my virginity there, don't remember what was playing. Also went with a friend a lot whos mom let him take her Vista cruiser. We sneaked others in hidden in the back along with what ever we could find to drink.
I wish we still had them around.

 

I have a story from the late 60's but it has racial overtones.......so if a mod wishes to delete it, I'll understand......

We (6 friends) we to the drive in to see the original cheap B movie 'Night of the Living Dead'.

Now the hero throughout the movie was a young black actor whose character slapped around the white male characters in the flick. The car next to us had several young blacks and each time this actor made some statement or did something to the white characters, the howling was loud, long and very intense.

Toward the end of the zombie crisis at the end of the film, the young black actor was peering out of the boarded up house and an Army guy shoots him right between the eyes.

Silence from the car next us......and yes we all bellowed like the young white people would. Maybe from spite, maybe from - who knows. Kids always went along with their friends.

Anyway you had to be there to see the irony of it all, and you must remember the times were different back then.

Other than that night, drive in movies were always cool to go to with family, friends, school buddies. The food always tasted great. The steamed up car windows were a hoot. The flattened tires were funny, until someone got you.

 

Did it have a bucket??

An afterthought.... Anybody remember spotlight wars on the screen? A friend of my brothers installed a spotlight on his '56 chevy just for that..

 

Hey WI guys, there's still a decent one in Jefferson...(near the swap meet) PLan something this summer?