Mae's Real Stories

A drive-in theater was a different kind of place to see movies: you would sit in your car and watch a huge screen where the movie was playing. Elaine wrote that sometimes my father said the magic words: "Let's go for a ride." Something else we loved to hear on a summer evening was "Let's go to the drive-in."

We would all get in the car right after dinner and drive to our favorite: the St. Ann 4-Screen Drive-In. The 4 screens facing outward in 4 directions from the center all played different movies. We parked the car in a good place -- not too close or too far away from the screen playing our movie. Then we attached the speaker, which was hanging on a post next to the parking space. It fit on the edge of the car window. That was how we could hear the movie sound.

Next we went to the playground in the center of the vast areas of parked cars, all pointing towards the screen. When it got dark enough it was time to settle down in the car and watch the screen. Sometimes Arny went to sleep during the movie, but I think Elaine and I always watched the whole thing. Once we saw a movie about an Australian singer with a lot of problems, who kept singing "Waltzing Matilda." I don't remember most of the movies we saw.

The last time I went to a drive-in was when Evelyn was a little girl. We went with Arny and Tracy and saw a movie with Woody Allen. Now I think almost all the drive-ins have closed, because everyone can watch movies on DVD in their own house instead of sitting in a car.
(Evelyn extends this: "Now some kids grow up watching movies in the car, on the car DVD player.")