REMEMBER? Drive-In Movies

It is not my intention to start another series of articles, like the famous “Six Weird Things” or like Racheline’s “Ask the ______”.  I wouldn’t know where to start.  But if that were my intention, I’ll bet this would make a good series.

I just got back from my family’s Mother’s Day celebration.  Even though we didn’t have everyone at the dinner table today, it was still a full house.  I had to take a moment and smile to myself at a special memory that makes all of my family laugh at ourselves.

My sister was always the popular one in school.  She had brought home one of her many boyfriends to meet the family and share Sunday dinner.  That was a strict rule.  All boyfriends had to be approved by the parents.  We always tried to make guests feel welcome but this was just another boyfriend, and in our house people didn’t stay “company” for long.  If you made it all the way through introductions, being “inspected” by all the other sisters, listening to my father sing the praises of the then-wonderful Dallas Cowboys, and finally to sitting down at the dinner table, well, you were family.  So we were sitting down to another table, full of people and full of wonderful food.  Everyone was served.  Grace was offered.  And everyone started enjoying the meal.  It took us a little while to notice that today’s boyfriend was just sitting there, with a rather shocked look on his face.  (I totally can’t remember his name, so he’ll be called Fella.)   So one of the parents, probably my father, finally asked, “What’s the matter fella?  Something wrong?  Did we skip one of the dishes?”  Poor fella, he just shook his head.  He finally said, “Y’all are all talking at once.  Everyone’s talking at the same time.”  Glances were exchanged and small smiles started on everyone’s faces.  “And you all seem to be able to follow each other’s conversations.  I’ve never seen anything like it.”  With real grins, we all sort of pounced on him.  “You’ll get used to it.  Just jump in there and start talking.  We won’t let you fall too far behind.”  And he did just that.  And survived.  We all love that memory.

Anyway, today was another Sunday feast, and it was Mother’s day, extra special.  Extra relatives at the table to honor mother and grandmother.  Every plate full.  Everyone talking.  And the conversation somehow landed on drive-in movie theatres.  My brother-in-law confirmed that the town’s last drive-in had been closed about a year ago.  Very sad.  Not surprising since no one had been to a drive-in in decades.  Everyone recited their last drive-in experience and it made me think of the typical drive-in experience for my family.

Of course there were several indoor movie theatres in San Antonio.  Daddy took us there often.  Dinner and a movie was our special Friday night treat and our social training so we could conduct ourselves in public.  Drive-ins were different.  That was just for our family.  It wasn’t spontaneous, mother carefully prepared for the evening.  I don’t know if it was limited funds or mother not thinking drive-in food was clean enough for her girls, but she would always prepare the same take-out feast.  Plenty of her excellent fried chicken, thick-cut French fried potatoes, and bread & butter sandwiches.  I’m sure there was something to drink but I don’t remember it.  And there was no running up to the concession stand.  If it wasn’t in the car, then we did not need it.

Parents in front, four little girls in the back seat.  Daddy would drive into a parking slot right in the middle of the lot, right in the front row, right in front of the screen.  That was very important.  We sisters were in our pajamas.  Almost no one was in the lot yet because we were always early.  Mother would unwrap her special drive-in movie feast.  The special warning not to drop any crumbs was ignored.  We were always messy.  And nothing tasted as good as fried chicken and butter sandwiches in the back seat of the car.  The sun was starting to set and more cars were arriving.  We better hurry up.  The most embarrassing part is next.  I’m sure I shouldn’t reveal this, but what the heck.  After a big meal, it was only natural that little girls would have to go to the bathroom.  But we were not allowed to use public bathrooms, and especially not those very public drive-in bathrooms.  Mother always brought an empty mayonnaise jar for us to complete this task.  Okay, I said it.  That’s my family’s darkest secret.  My father would get out of the car and gather the many blankets and pillows we always packed in the trunk.  He would busy himself with carefully spreading the blankets on the ground right in front of the car.  He would arrange the pillows so that his little girls could rest their heads right up next to the warmth of the car’s engine.  We would all be lying in a row, watching the giant screen like our own private immense TV.  And while daddy was busy with that chore, mother would get into the backseat, help us finish our “duty”, make sure we were properly cleaned up, then send us out front to lie down in front of the car.  I’m sure somewhere in this procedure she emptied the mayonnaise jar.  Both she and daddy would make sure we were tucked in, lying straight, no nonsense, and watching the screen.  Under no circumstances were we allowed to get off those blankets.  If the slot next to us was empty, daddy would turn on that speaker and pull it as close as possible to us so we could hear the movie.

Funny, I don’t clearly remember ever hearing a movie.  It doesn’t seem to matter.  I don’t remember any of the endings of the movies.  We would always fall asleep.  I know the parents would carry us into the car afterwards.  I can remember turning my head and sleepily looking out the car window.  It was dark but there were lots of lights.  We were moving very slowly.  We were in the middle of lots of cars, slowly driving out of the big drive-in lot.  The movie was over and we were going home.

Honestly, I can’t recall a single movie that I ever saw at the drive-in.  I remember that huge screen all lit up in front of us.  I remember ALWAYS seeing a cartoon about a hotdog, dancing and flipping, and a bun inviting the hotdog to jump in.  I remember the rocks and pebbles poking through the blanket.  I remember how hot the car felt right where our heads were resting on the pillows.  I remember the smell of the night air, sometimes hot, sometimes cold.  There never seemed to be bugs.  And I remember we all LOVED to go to the drive-in.  We thought everyone did it that way.  As we got a little older, my mother decided that girls should not be outside in their pajamas.  We started tapering away from drive-ins.  Pretty soon our Friday nights were exclusively devoted to dinner at a nice restaurant (mind your manners and learn how to cut your food without mishap) and then an indoor movie.  That was fine for us kids.  As an adult, I will never forget how good I felt lying on that blanket with all my sisters.

I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day and a wonderful weekend.