A Night at the Drive-in.

I'm fortunate enough to live within 10 minutes of a drive-in movie theater.  When we first moved up this way a few years ago, that was the one thing that made me the most excited about the area.  There aren't many drive-ins left in the United States.  According to Drive-Ins.com there are only 396 drive-ins currently open in the US.  I'm not sure how up to date their site is, but that seems like a rather sad number.  I can remember as a kid getting all dressed up in my pajamas and going out with my mom and sister to a night at the drive-in.  Back then I'm pretty sure there were more around, but in the past couple of decades it seems as if the drive-in movie is slowly going the way of the dinosaur.  A night at the drive-in is such a great escape for adults and kids alike.  It's fairly inexpensive (when you compare it to an indoor theater anyway) and makes for a full evening of family fun!

 Each year my husband and I visit the Warwick Drive-In many times during the summer months and last night was our first time for this year. We, unfortunately, arrived a little later than we like to and as such got stuck in a not so great angle, but it wasn't bad at all.  The image makes it look worse than it really was.  As you can see, there were quite a few kids and adults playing around in the area in front of the screen as we waited for dark to arrive. (*photos taken with cell phone, so not the best quality*)

I'm sure at one time there was a whole playground area, but all that's left is a slide and a big open field where people are often seen tossing balls and playing frisbee. 

The Warwick Drive-in has three screens and so plays six movies a night (two on each).  The theater was built back in 1950 and I believe originally only had 2 screens.  Here's a really bad view of the other two screens.

I remember the days of hanging the silly speaker on the window of the car in order to hear the show.  These days the drive-in has specific radio stations that you tune into on your car stereo or boom box and the movie plays through that.  It brings a much clearer quality sound!

Here's the little info pamphlet and tickets that they give you upon entering.  It includes the details on the radio stations and even has the menu for the snack bar on the back.

My husband and I usually like to pick up a pizza from a local pizza place on the way and bring that to eat.  (We didn't do that last night, however as we were running late).  We also bring sodas and snacks for the evening, but the one thing we always must buy at the theater is popcorn!

The prices at the Warwick Drive-in are $8 per adult and that includes two movies.  Kids and seniors are only $5, while tots under 4 are free.  I don't think you can beat that price for a full evening's entertainment!  Going to an indoor theater costs more than that for ONE movie and they don't allow you to bring your own food and beverages! 

Last night the hubby and I saw "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Iron Man."  I'm not going to do a full review of either one right now as I'm mostly just wanting to talk about the drive-in, but I have to say that while I enjoyed both, I thought "Iron Man" was the better of the two.  I may write more thoughts on both movies at a future time. 

A night at the drive-in is one of my favorite ways to spend an evening.  Sitting in the car, or relaxing in lawn chairs under the stars is such a fun way to view a movie.  I enjoy the drive-in so much that I don't know that I could ever move to an area where I didn't have one within a reasonable driving distance from me.  Last year we even brought Rogue (our dog) with us a couple of times.  She just loved seeing all the people.  Now that we have two dogs, however, we haven't quite gotten around to bringing them both.  Seems to be too much of a handful, but I have seen other movie-goers with their pups walking around the fields. 

At the drive-in last night a big group of gals had rented a Hummer Limo and were sitting on top of it for the movies.  Fortunately they were off at the far screen from us because they seemed to be rather loud. 

One other benefit that the Warwick Drive-in has is that they are now a WiFi spot!  I wish I'd known before we headed out last night because I could have brought my laptop and written this article FROM the drive-in instead of just about the drive-in.  Wouldn't that have been neat?