Remember the Drive-In Theatre

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. I feel like "Mr. Rogers" this morning as I hum his theme song. I woke up to a bright day of sunshine and look out to see everyone getting in the morning walk early. I see ladies and gents strolling along with dogs of all kinds: pomeranians; a variety of terriers; dachhaunds (sp. hot dogs); a few shepherds. Dogs in the park are supposed toweigh less than 20 pounds but older dogs have been grandfathered in. We don't have a dog, don't want a dog, don't need a dog to clean up behind. They are pretty to look at but too much trouble when traveling.

Today is the local flea market day, so many of the guys ride their bikes about 2 miles over to the drive-in theatre where it is held. Yes, there is still a drive-in theatre here and believe it or not, they still show movies some nights! I thought they were all obsolete. Do you remember the posts that held those ugly metal speakers which you drove up beside, would take the speaker and put in on your window? Some of the guys would try to steal them or pull them off the posts. Sometimes, you picked a place where the speaker didn't work and you would have to move; sometimes a truck load of teenagers would come park in front of you and block your view; sometimes you didn't like the movie anyway so you really didn't do much watching. Your date had to get out of the car to walk to the concession stand for your popcorn, candy and sodas. Or sometimes, you would wanted a hot dog; after all, they had great ones.

At the local Drive-Ins, we only had one screen, but in the nearby city, there were places that had 2 screens and you could choose which movie to park at. Sometimes you could ride down the road and see the pictures but usually, the screens were turned away from public view. It was important to get the teenagers' 50 cents! Did you ever try to sneak in all of your friends, usually in the trunks of the cars or under a pile of coats? What silly things we often did just for fun. I remember sneaking in some friends just to see if we could get away with it. We did, but we then "fessed" up and paid for the 2 extra people. None of us were bad kids, just fun-loving. Sort of like we are today, just changed our direction of fun with a much lower energy level!