“If You Should Accidentally Tear A Speaker Off…”
Looking out the window you’d think what a lovely day. The sun is shining and the sky is blue with only a few clouds, but all that’s horribly deceiving. I sat outside with my ice coffee and my papers, did very little and still sweated. I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear,”I’m melting. I’m melting,” from a nearby house. It’s that muggy. It’s one of those feel grungy sort of days when two or three showers mightn’t be enough.
Tomorrow night is the dry run for my Movies on the Deck, just a couple of friends who won’t mind if there are glitches. I want to make sure I can easily set-up and work the projector and the popcorn machine. With the sightings of great whites, I thought Jaws would be the perfect opener. I’m really looking forward to having movies outside in the cool of a summer evening. I’ve told my friends pajamas would be just fine should they prefer a retro look.
The town drive-in is long gone. All that’s left are overgrown rows where the cars used to drive looking for the perfect spot. It was a small drive-in so deep in the woods that the mosquitoes carried off small children. Sometimes the screams were from the movie, sometimes from small children. We always set in the back so we could use two spaces, one for the car and one for us. We’d set out chairs, a picnic basket and a cooler and surround ourselves with lit mosquito coils. We brought wine and cheese, crackers and fine pastries. We’d put the audio box on the car window facing us so we could hear the movie’s dialogue. We’d sit and chat and critique the movie while sumptuously dining on the goodies from our picnic basket. There were never many cars. It was always my favorite drive-in.
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July 9, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Hmmm. Kat, if your family was the only ones in the back row of the drive-in, then your area was REALLY different from west Texas in the 50’s! The back row there was populated by those who “parked” back there for isolation reasons. Maybe your family ran those folks off on the nights when you set up back there?
July 9, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Rick,
This was when I was an adult with my friends in the 70’s. The back row was filled with chairs and people enjoying libations and an illegal substance or two.
Given the hordes of mosquitoes at the Dennis Drive-in, the “parkers” went to Yarmouth with a sea breeze and no bugs.
July 9, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Kat – I am full of admiration – I wish I had thought of “Jaws and Jammies” – the perfect dating strategy.
July 9, 2010 at 2:08 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I admit I wish the thought had come to me earlier as well!
July 9, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Be ready when the head floats down…there could be magic in the warm summer evening
July 9, 2010 at 1:58 pm
I definatly lives to far from You! So fun to see movies outside 🙂 I looked on the internet and didn´t find that we ever have had a drive-in over here.But I think it has to do with our light nights. It doesn´t get dark until one hour after sunset and that is around 11pm 🙂 🙂 But we do have drive in bingo 🙂 🙂
Have a great movie night! I wish I could be there!
Christer.
July 9, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Christer,
When I was a kid, we went to the drive-in a couple of times a month and sometimes more. It was a cheap way to get the whole family to the movies.
The late darkness would most decidedly hamper a drive-in for you. As it was we had to wait until 8 sometimes for the first film.
How does drive-in bingo work?
July 10, 2010 at 12:50 am
Everyone sits in their cars on a big field and when someone gets a bingo they honk their horns until someone comes to check that it is right 🙂 We also has Cow bingo, not drive-in though 🙂
July 9, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Ah, the drive-In or as we would say the passion pit.
I remember when our local one was only a $1.50 a car load.
We’d get the friend with the biggest car(usually a 59 olds)and pack the car with friends. 2 or 3 even in the trunk. Then set out looking for the car-load of girls.(in jest hopefully to score a nights date)The driver always had a ride home and some of us were lucky to get one from the gals we were with.
Only the unlucky ones wiould en up walking home.
Ah, the memories. Dd I say I was ambitious,and a teenager in lust? p.s. always the B rated movies were the scorefull!
July 10, 2010 at 9:40 am
Morpfy,
My friends and I did the same-load up the car and stick a few people in the trunk. We’d find a spot and wait a bit in case the people at the drive-in were watching-they did that sometimes to catch the cars with hidden passengers. We were the all girls car!
July 9, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Does Mme Pelosi know of your plans? Especially the speaker treatment thing?
Cheers
July 10, 2010 at 9:41 am
Minicapt,
I haven’t told her. Somethings are just better left unsaid.
July 10, 2010 at 1:42 am
Yesterday it was 103 in Atlanta (true melting weather), so today we drove to Clarksdale, Mississippi to see if we could find some real warmth. Went to Ground Zero in Clarksdale tonight and heard Robert Belfour, Jimbo Mathus and Kevin Gordon. Tomorrow night Mose Allison is playing. It actually turned out to be cooler in Mississippi than Georgia, and the music was great.
July 10, 2010 at 9:42 am
Bob,
I doubt I’d move out of my air conditioned bedroom with temperatures that high. Gracie and I would read and loll.
You had the right idea, though, some music and some cooler weather.
July 10, 2010 at 3:40 am
Your entry reminds me of the drive in I went to as a kid in Northwest Indiana; that was so in need to repair that Siskel and Ebert made fun of in on their show. Now I live in Southern California, and the few remaining drive ins are few and far between, relegated to Swap Meets. I miss them. Are you using an actual projector with film or a digital one? What a great idea!
July 10, 2010 at 9:53 am
Lynn,
I had been hunting for a year or so for something easy for the deck. Most projectors used a laptop connected to a projector-too much trouble for me. The paper, one weekend, in its tech column had a review of the Epson MovieMate which is what I bought. It is an all in one unit. Plug it in, put in the DVD, adjust the picture for the screen, eat your popcorn and enjoy. It’s that easy, I hope. It will be my first time using it tonight (if the rain holds off).
I got a chuckle about your drive-in. I’m betting Dennis had a few characteristics in common with it.
July 10, 2010 at 7:22 am
Yay for drive ins! Our were always packed. We stayed for a triple movie on the weekend and ended up driving home at sunrise. They were so much fun but it would have been better if we had a Dennis Drive-In. Our Mt Vernon Drive In was so crowded you couldn’t get a snack from the snack stand for over an hour.
July 10, 2010 at 9:44 am
Z&Me,
The Dennis Drive in never had a full house. The snack bar was a smallish building but most of us brought our own. The Yarmouth Drive-in was where everyone went. It was always crowded. The parking lot backed up to the ocean, and there was always a breeze. That drive-in was for my high school years; Dennis was for my adult years.