“My favorite part is the dancing hot dog before the movie.”
The rain started last night. I heard it on the roof. It was a steady rain sounding almost like a single drop. It stopped sometime in the very early morning, but it just started again. The dampness has made the day chilly, in the 60’s. It is also quite dark.
The draining tube was taken from Nala’s leg yesterday. The vet thought the injury was looking good. She wagged her tail at everyone and their dogs in the waiting room, including another boxer. He was older, already a bit grayed. Nala with her cone has knocked down all sorts of stuff from shelves. Of course, they everything breaks. I’m in the clean-up business. Henry is still a bit nervous about the cone.
When I was a kid, we used to go to the drive-in on summer Saturday nights. The drive-in was in Burlington. We used to ride on Route 128 to get there. I remember our exit was right after the place which sold tractors and other equipment. That’s how I knew we were close. We always brought the snacks with us. My father would pop corn and put it into individual bags. He’d stop at the store for candy, mostly Hershey Bars. He made Zarex and put it in the tartan jug. He called it bug juice. He was in charge of filling the glasses. My mother always packed the aluminum glasses. They were different colors so we all knew which glass was ours. We wore our pajamas. Back then every kid did. At intermission kids would be at the playground, and every kid was in pajamas, robes and sneakers. I know I’ve mentioned before about my father and traffic, but it bears repeating. We always left before the end of the movie. My father dreads getting caught in traffic. We used to watch the movie out the back window as we left. We were the only car leaving.
When I was an adult and visiting my parents for the weekend, we went to the drive-in. My father popped corn and brought candy from the house. Old habits die hard. There were two movies. The first was Jeremiah Johnson, the mountain man. It starred Robert Redford. It was a good movie. The second movie, always the best movie at any drive-in, was A New Leaf with Elaine May and Walter Matthau. It was a wonderful, funny, warm movie.
I don’t know why I remember that night at the drive-in, maybe because it was my past brought into the present and just maybe because it was also the last time we went together to the drive-in. I think that made it memorable.
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June 17, 2023 at 2:01 pm
Hi Kat,
Today is partly cloudy with a predicted high temperature near 100°. Yesterday we only reached 97°. With as much humidity as we’ve had over the last week, the temperature usually will not get that high.
When I was a kid in 1954, we lived in some apartments behind a drive in movie theater. There was an alley separating the movie theater from the apartments where each apartment had a covered parking space. There were holes in the fence separating us from the movie and we could watch the movies through the fence holes. We couldn’t hear the sound, but we didn’t care. We got to see the film for free.
My father hated drive in movies so we never went. When I was in college and had my first car I would take girls to the drive in movies so that we could watch the submarine races, 🙂 That was a a term we used for making out in the back seat during the movie. The only movie I remember seeing in a drive in was, “Barbarella”, starring a very young Jane Fonda. I must have not been with a cooperative date that night. 🙂
We all have selective memory and our brains change our episodic memories when we recall them. Obviously, the memory of going to the drive in with your family as an adult must have been important. Regardless if we change the memories or not, they still have great meaning in our lives.
June 17, 2023 at 2:35 pm
HI Bob,
It is pouring but not as dark as it was. I’ll take the rain and the cool day over your weather. I don’t think we have hit 100 in years.
I think not hearing the movie would have driven me crazy, even if seeing it was free. There is a drive-in somewhere in Western Mass which has a motel at the back. You can rent a room and watch and hear the movie from your room.
The drive-in didn’t cost us a thing. My grandfather had a pass from E.M. Lowe for all his theaters so my father flashed the card and we were in. Of course I know about submarine races. We are, after all, the same age. In my town there were parking spots near the reservoir, and on Friday and Saturday nights the spots were filled with race spectators.
My memory of the drive-in that night hasn’t changed. As you can see, I even remembered the movies. That was at the twin drive-in which was demolished years ago. I still think about it when I pass the exit where it used to be.
June 17, 2023 at 5:03 pm
Today, I went into my pool for the first time. The water was just warm enough. 🙂
We would make up the dialog while watching the movie through the holes. We never stayed to see the entire film.
There are very few drive in movies today because they all had movie film projectors. Today, movies are distributed over the internet and the projectors in theaters are really projecting digital images. It’s a scaled up version of the digital projector I have in my home theater upstairs. Most drive in movie theaters couldn’t afford to change over and just closed. Honda Motor company, a couple of years ago, had a promotion to give away digital projectors to save some of the drive in theaters left in the country. It wasn’t successful.
Obviously, you remember most of the important details of that night. However, scientists tell us that you have probably changed some minor details over the years. It doesn’t really matter, because your recollection of the events contains the most important things. The time you spent with your family and the titles of the flicks.
June 17, 2023 at 5:42 pm
The cape still has a drive-in movie down cape in Wellfleet. During the day on weekends it is a flea market. It is a popular spot and still shows two movies, the kid’s movie first. I think the tourists love taking their kids to a drive-in movie.
I have almost an eidetic memory. I can close my eyes and see places as they were and others as they are. In school, for tests, I could see the pages in the book where the answers could be found. I could even show you where we parked at that movie if the theater still existed. I give directions which include the number of stop lights on the route; however, Images are getting less vivid as I get older. My memory is much less sharp. I’m hating that.
June 17, 2023 at 6:23 pm
Amazing! I’m lucky if I can remember what day it is. :-). Yesterday, I thought that I was teaching a class on Monday and Tuesday next week which I thought Tuesday was Independence Day. My mind is not as sharp either. 🙂
June 17, 2023 at 10:06 pm
I am also at the point of wondering the day of the week. Partly that is because all the days are the same, no weekends the way they used to be. I tell everyone retirement means every day is Saturday.